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THE    LIFE,   TRIAL,   AND   DEATH    OF 
FRANCISCO    FERRER 


BY  THE  SAME  AUTHOR. 

THROUGH     AFRO-AMERICA.      An 

English   Reading   of    the    Race    Problem. 
Demy  8vo,  loj.  bd.  net. 

"  A  pleasure  to  read.  It  grips  one's  interest  from  the 
first  page  to  the  last.  .  .  .  Mr.  Archer  is  precise  where 
so  many  writers  are  diffuse,  and  he  gives  his  observation 
and  its  fruits  instead  of  vague  generalisation  based  on 
unsound  theory." — Evening  Standard. 

' '  Of  real  value  as  a  contribution  to  the  most  urgent 
of  all  discussions  in  American  politics." — Pal/  Mall 
Gazette. 

' '  A  profoundly  interesting  book.  The  book  is  an 
important  contribution  towards  the  sociology  of  the 
race  question  in  America." — Manchester  Guardian. 

"  Interesting  and  suggestive." — Truth. 


FRANCISCO   FERRER   GUARDIA. 


{^Frontispiece. 


THE 


LIFE,    TRIAL,    AND    DEATH 


OF 


FRANCISCO   FERRER, 


BY 

WILLIAM   ARCHER 


WITH   ILLUSTRATIONS 


NEW   YORK 
MOFFAT,   YARD   AND    COMPANY 

1911 

Ali  ri^hU  reservtd 


PREFACE 

When,  at  the  request  of  the  Editor  of  McClure's 
Magazine,  I  undertook  the  investigation  of  which  the 
following  pages  are  the  result,  I  had  barely  heard  the 
name  of  Francisco  Ferrer.  In  other  words,  I  approached 
the  subject  with  the  impartiality  of  ignorance. 

The  circumstances  were  these  :  Mr.  Perceval  Gibbon 
had  contributed  to  McClure's  Magazuie  an  article  on 
Ferrer,  which,  though  excellent  so  far  as  it  went,  was 
written  at  a  time  when  complete  information  was  not 
yet  accessible.  American  Roman  Catholics  violently 
assailed  the  article,  and  opposed  to  it  the  ecclesiastical 
legend  of  Ferrer's  character,  career  and  crimes.  Among 
the  insults  they  hurled  at  Mr.  Gibbon  was  one  which 
probably  left  him  "  more  than  usual  calm  " — the  sug- 
gestion, to  wit,  that  he  must  be  lineally  descended  from 
the  infamous  author  of  TJie  Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Roman 
Empire.  Always  willing  to  hear  both  sides  of  a  question, 
McClures  Magazine  printed  an  article  by  one  of  the 
Catholic  champions,  which  displayed  an  astounding 
ignorance  of  even  the  admitted  facts  of  the  case,  as  set 
forth  in  the  official  documents  ;  and  meanwhile  the  Editor 
commissioned  me  to  go  to  Spain  and  undertake  an  in- 
dependent enquiry  into  the  whole  matter. 

My  mind,  as  before  stated,  was  a  blank  as  regards 
Ferrer,  and  I  had  no  predispositions  to  contend  against. 


vi  PREFACE 

Certainly  I  was  not  a  Roman  Catholic;  but  I  was  in 
no  way  committed  to  hostility  to  Catholicism.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  had  I  convinced  myself  that  Ferrer  was 
guilty,  or  even  that  he  had  had  a  fair  trial,  it  would  have 
been  very  easy,  and  by  no  means  disagreeable,  for  me 
to  have  said  so.  My  impartiality  would  have  shone 
conspicuous ;  and,  as  for  McClure's  Magazine,  it  could 
only  have  gained  by  confessing  itself  in  error,  and  thus 
effecting  a  reconciliation  with  a  large  and  important 
section  of  the  American  public.  But  I  very  soon  saw 
that  I  could  not  in  conscience  recommend  recantation 
on  any  point  of  the  smallest  importance.  For  a  week 
or  two  after  I  began  to  look  into  the  case,  my  judgment 
remained  in  suspense ;  but  I  had  no  sooner  procured  and 
read  the  official  version  of  the  trial,  the  Jiiicio  Ordinario 
seguido  .  .  .  contra  Francisco  Ferrer  Guardia,  than  all 
doubt  was  at  an  end.  I  knew  that  Ferrer  had  been  the 
victim,  if  not  of  a  judicial  crime,  at  any  rate  of  an 
enormous  judicial  stupidity. 

It  may  perhaps  be  said — indeed,  it  has  been  said  by 
one  critic — that  I  apply  to  Spanish  procedure  the  test 
of  English  legal  principles  and  rules  of  evidence.  This 
is  not  really  so.  The  little  I  ever  learned  of  English 
rules  of  evidence  has  long  since  vanished  from  my  mind. 
The  tests  I  have  sought  to  apply  are  simply  those  of 
common  sense  and  fair  play.  I  have  shown,  too,  that 
even  the  rules  of  Spanish  military  procedure,  grossly 
unfair  as  they  are  to  the  accused,  were  not  observed  in 
Ferrer's  case,  but  were  overridden  to  his  disadvantage. 

I  shall  not  attempt  to  draw  up  a  list  of  everybody, 
in  England  and  in  Spain,  to  whom  I  owe  thanks  for 
valuable  assistance.  To  two  men  above  all  others  my 
gratitude  is  due :  to   Professor  Tarrida  del    Marmol,  for 


PREFACE  vii 

his  unwearying  kindness  in  answering  the  multitudinous 
questions  which  I  put  to  him ;  and  to  Mr.  William 
Heaford,  for  the  generous  way  in  which  he  placed  at  my 
disposal,  not  only  his  invaluable  letters  from  Ferrer,  but 
masses  of  other  material,  and  notably  the  publications 
of  the  Escuela  Moderna.  Without  the  help  of  Professor 
del  Marmol  and  Mr.  Heaford  my  work  would  have  been 
almost  impossible.  Dr.  L.  Simarro,  Professor  of  Psycho- 
logy in  the  University  of  Madrid,  and  author  of  El  Proceso 
Ferrer  y  la  Opinion  Eicropea,  most  kindly  facilitated  my 
task  by  giving  me  advance  proofs  of  that  masterly  and 
exhaustive  study  of  the  case.  Mr.  Charles  Arrow,  late 
of  the  Criminal  Investigation  Department,  besides  render- 
ing me  other  assistance,  lent  me  a  report  of  the  Madrid 
trial  of  1907,  which  was  of  great  service  to  me.  I  have 
also  to  thank  Mr.  B.  Walsh,  of  Barcelona,  for  very  able 
help  in  my  enquiries  in  that  region. 

It  may  be  asked  whether  I  have  gone  to  Catholic 
authorities  for  their  side  of  the  case  ?  Certainly  I  have 
done  so.  I  have  not  only  waded  through  files  of  the 
Catholic  press,  and  read  Catholic  books  and  pamphlets 
(for  instance,  La  Seniana  Sangrienta,  Villaescusa's  La 
Revolucion  de  Julio,  Casimiro  Comas's  Francisco  Ferrer, 
etc.,  etc.),  but  I  have  been  at  some  pains  to  seek  out 
persons  who,  I  was  told,  could  throw  light  on  the  case 
from  the  Catholic  point  of  view.  These  enquiries,  how- 
ever, were  absolutely  fruitless.  They  merely  convinced 
me  that  the  so-called  authorities  neither  knew  nor  wanted 
to  know  anything  about  the  case.  It  was  sufficient  for 
them  that  Ferrer  was  a  diabolical  personage  who  deserved 
death  on  general  principles,  whether  he  was  guilty  of  the 
particular  crimes  imputed  to  him  or  no.  They  repeated 
to   me  legends  which  were  conclusively  disproved  in  the 


viii  PREFACE 

official  reports  of  the  trial.  They  had  not  even  been  at 
the  trouble  of  mastering  the  theories  of  the  prosecution. 
I  could  have  stated  the  case  against  Ferrer  far  more 
plausibly  than  they  could. 

Both  in  Spain  and  out  of  it,  Ferrer  has  very  commonly 
been  called  "the  Spanish  Dreyfus."  The  resemblances 
between  the  two  "  affairs  "  are,  indeed,  unmistakable.  In 
each  case  we  see  militarism,  inspired  by  clericalism, 
riding  rough-shod  over  the  plainest  principles  and  prac- 
tices of  justice.  The  victim  in  each  case  is  a  personage 
hated  by  the  Church — in  France  a  Jew,  in  Spain  a  free- 
thinker. If  my  reading  of  the  Ferrer  case  is  right,  there 
was  not  so  much  active  and  deliberate  villainy  at  work 
in  it  as  there  was  in  the  Dreyfus  case ;  but,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  determination  to  convict,  with  or  without  evi- 
dence, was  even  more  manifest  in  the  Spanish  authorities 
than  in  the  French.  The  character  of  Ferrer  was  interest- 
ing in  itself,  whereas  Dreyfus,  apart  from  his  calamities, 
would  never  have  been  heard  of.  But  the  great  difference 
between  the  cases  lies  in  the  fact  that  the  Spanish 
Government  had  the  courage  of  its  fanaticism,  and  killed 
its  man.  Perhaps  it  took  warning  from  the  Dreyfus  case, 
and  determined  to  seek  security  in  the  irreparable.  It 
is  true  that  no  argument,  no  revision,  can  undo  the  work 
of  that  October  morning  in  the  trenches  of  Montjuich  ; 
but  it  may  be  doubted  whether  Don  Antonio  Maura  and 
the  Ultramontane  party  may  not  find  the  ghost  of  Ferrer 
more  formidable  than  the  living  man  could  ever  have 
been. 

If  only  one  dared  to  hope  that,  in  reparation  for  her 
terrible  blunder,  Spain  would  seriously  set  about  that 
education  of  the  people  which  was  Ferrer's  dream !  I  do 
not  mean,  of  course,  that  his  principles  or  methods  should 


PREFACE  ix 

be  adopted.  It  would  be  extremely  easy  to  start  better 
schools  than  his — schools  in  which  the  children  should 
have  a  chance  of  growing  up  into  free  and  enlightened 
human  beings,  unwarped  by  either  religious  bigotry  or 
anti-religious  fanaticism.  It  would  be  extremely  easy — 
in  any  country  but  Spain.  How  sad  that  in  that  noble 
and  beautiful  land,  so  richly  dowered  both  by  nature  and 
by  art,  there  should  be  no  middle  course  between  spiritual 
enslavement  and  vehement  revolt ! 

One  good  result  must  surely  ensue  from  the  Ferrer 
case,  when  the  passions  of  the  moment  have  died  away. 
It  must  lead  to  the  removal  from  the  statute-book  of  the 
wholly  irrational  and  indefensible  Ley  de  Jurisdicciones, 
by  which  the  lives  and  liberties  of  citizens  are  placed  at 
the  mercy  of  incompetent  military  tribunals,  in  precisely 
the  cases  in  which  those  tribunals  are  necessarily  least 
able  to  take  objective  and  impartial  views.  It  cannot  be 
too  clearly  stated  that  Ferrer  did  not  fall  a  victim  to 
"  martial "  law — to  a  hasty  procedure  excused  by  the 
stress  of  military  necessity.  The  "state  of  siege"  had 
long  been  at  an  end,  and  the  normal  law  of  the  land 
had  resumed  its  sway.  But  it  was  the  normal  law  of 
the  land  that  persons  accused  of  offences  against  the 
Army  should  be  tried  by  the  Army,  and  under  a  set  of 
rules  which  placed  the  prisoner  at  every  possible  dis- 
advantage. It  was  not,  in  short,  a  case  of  "  martial  law," 
but  of  "military  law," — a  very  different  thing — and  it 
affords  a  tragic  warning,  not  for  Spain  alone,  but  for 
all  nations,  against  leaving  the  administration  of  justice 
to  soldiers,  under  any  circumstances  except  those  of 
actual  war. 

London, 

March  lo,  191 1. 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Preface       v 

I.  Youth  and  Marriage i 

II.  The  Three  Revolver-Shots 7 

III.  Mademoiselle  Meunier's  Money          ...  18 

IV.  The  Escuela  Moderna 28 

V.  The  Crime  of  the  Calle  Mayor          ...  63 

VI.  A  Two-Years'  Truce 81 

VII.  Barcelona 97 

VIII.  From  London  to  Mas  Germinal  .       .       .       .108 

IX.  The  Melilla  Adventure 119 

X.  The  Red  Week 127 

XI.  Ferrer  Day  by  Day 143 

XII.  The  Exiles  of  Teruel 150 

XIII.  The  Legend  grows 162 

XIV.  Capture  and  Imprisonment 171 

XV.  Procedure  and  Preliminaries      .       .       .       .179 

XVI.    The  Trial  in  Outline 190 

XVII.    The  Evidence— Opinion  and  Hearsay        .       .    195 
XVIII.    The    Evidence  —  Statements     which     prove 

Nothing 204 

XIX.    The  Evidence— Relevant  Accusations       .        .211 
XX.    The  Evidence— Documentary        .       .        .       .222 

XXI.    Verdict  and  Execution 235 

XXII.    The  Case  Summed  Up 242 

Appendix 255 

Index 325 


LIST   OF   ILLUSTRATIONS 

FACING  PAGE 

Francisco  Ferrer  Guardia         .        .        .        Frontispiece 

Ferrer's  Birthplace,  Alella 3 

The  Ferrer  Family  at  Bendigo,  1898        .       .       ,       -15 

Soledad  Villafranca 67 

Mas  Germinal 81 

Mas  Germinal  (General  View) 93 

Courtyard  and  Cistern,  Mas  Germinal  ....  93 

The  Living-room  at  Mas  Germinal 94 

Josfe  Ferrer 95 

Ferrer's  "Study"  at  Mas  Germinal        ....  96 

MONTJUICH 99 

Ferrer's  Birthplace 171 

The  Scene  of  Ferrer's  Arrest 171 

The  Trial 190 

The  Fraternidad  Republicana  at  Premia      .       .       .  216 

The  Approach  to  Premia 219 

The  Ayuntamiento  of  PremiA 219 

Facsimile  of  Letter  to  Mlle.  Henriette  Meyer  .       .  228 

Ferrer's  Coffin  carried  to  Montjuich   ....  239 

Cavalry   leaving  Montjuich  after  the  Execution       .  241 


THE  LIFE,  TRIAL,  AND  DEATH 
OF    FRANCISCO    FERRER 


YOUTH  AND   MARRIAGE 

On  October  9,  1909,  Francisco  Ferrer  was  sentenced  to 
death  on  the  charge  of  being  the  "author  and  chief"  of 
what  is  known  as  the  "  Revolution  of  July  "  in  Barcelona. 
On  October  13  the  sentence  was  executed  in  the  trenches 
of  the  fortress  of  Montjuich.  Instantly  there  arose  a 
storm  of  protest  all  over  Europe.  In  Paris  there  was 
rioting,  attended  by  bloodshed ;  and  important  indigna- 
tion meetings  were  held  in  London,  Rome,  Berlin,  Brussels, 
Lisbon,  Marseilles,  Toulon,  Lyons,  Genoa,  Venice,  Naples, 
Oporto,  and  many  other  cities.  The  execution  was 
denounced  as  a  judicial  crime  of  the  blackest  type,  and 
Ferrer  was  glorified  as  a  martyr  of  free  thought,  done  to 
death  by  a  sinister  and  vindictive  clericalism.  Nine  days 
later,  the  Maura  Cabinet  resigned,  its  fall  being  due  in 
great  measure  to  the  evil  repute  it  had  brought  upon 
itself  and  upon  Spain  by  hurrying  Ferrer  to  his  death. 
But,  when  the  tempest  of  popular  fury  had  subsided, 
the  Roman  Catholics  of  all  countries  came  forward  to 
the   rescue   and   vindication    of    their   Spanish   brethren. 

B 


2  FRANCISCO  FERRER 

They  said  (quite  truly)  that  not  one  in  twenty  of  the 
people  who  shouted  themselves  hoarse  in  honour  of  the 
atheist  martyr  knew  anything  of  the  facts  of  his  case. 
They  said  that  Ferrer  was  a  notorious  evil  liver,  who  had 
left  his  wife  and  children  to  starve,  while  he  spent  with 
his  mistresses  the  wealth  which  he  had  wheedled  out 
of  a  too  confiding  old  maid,  by  a  hypocritical  pretence 
of  piety  and  philanthropy.  They  said  he  had  certainly 
been  concerned  in  Morral's  attempt  upon  the  King  and 
Queen  of  Spain,  though  he  had  so  skilfully  covered  his 
tracks  that  the  crime  could  not  be  brought  home  to  him. 
They  said  that  he  taught  bomb-making  in  his  school,  and 
placarded  on  its  walls  an  exhortation  to  regicide.  They 
said  that  he  had  engineered  the  Barcelona  revolt  in  order  to 
make  money  by  a  stock-exchange  gamble.  And,  finally, 
they  said  that,  after  a  trial  conducted  in  strict]  accordance 
with  the  law  of  the  land,  he  had  been  proved  beyond  a 
doubt  to  have  acted  as  organizer  and  director  of  an 
insurrection  which  had  been  accompanied  by  murder, 
sacrilege,  and  unprecedented  scenes  of  rapine  and  havoc. 
"  Did  any  one  ever  deserve  death,"  they  asked,  "  if  this 
man  did  not .'' " 

Assuredly  he  deserved  death,  by  the  laws  of  all  nations, 
if  he  was  the  instigator  and  director  of  the  rising.  But 
was  he  ^    This  is  the  point  which  we  have  to  investigate. 

It  was  in  this  character,  and  in  this  only,  that  he  was 
condemned.  The  prosecution  formally  renounced  at  the 
outset  all  attempt  to  bring  home  to  him  any  individual 
act  of  violence.  It  was  as  "author  and  chief  of  the 
rebellion  " — "  autor  y  jefe  de  la  rebelion  " — that  he  was 
found  guilty  and  shot.  The  phrase  occurs  not  only  in  the 
actual  sentence  of  death,  but  nearly  twenty  times  in  the 
three  speeches  for  the  prosecution,    published    with    the 


s5 


< 
< 

CL, 


HIS  BIRTHPLACE  3 

sanction  of  the  Spanish  Government.*  Other  accusations 
brought  against  him  have,  then,  no  real  relevance.  But  as 
he  was  unquestionably  surrounded  by  a  dense  atmosphere 
of  evil  report — an  atmosphere  which  breathes  from  every 
page  of  the  official  Process — it  may  be  well,  before  examining 
the  essential  points  in  the  case,  to  analyze  this  atmosphere, 
and  distinguish  between  the  elements  of  truth  and  of 
falsehood  in  its  composition. 

Francisco  Ferrer  Guardia,  son  of  Jaime  Ferrer  and 
his  wife  Maria  de  los  Angeles  Guardia,  was  born  at  Alella, 
a  village  some  twelve  miles  from  Barcelona,  on  January 
lo,  1859.  Ferrer  is  one  of  the  commonest  of  surnames 
in  Catalonia,  being,  I  take  it,  equivalent  to  the  English 
Smith,  According  to  Spanish  custom,  he  added  his 
mother's  name,  Guardia,  to  his  actual  surname,  Ferrer. 
His  parents  seem  to  have  been  fairly  well-to-do  agri- 
culturists, and  were  "  believing  and  practising  Catholics." 
His  birthplace,  known  as  the  Casa  Boter,  is  a  substantial 
house,  standing,  in  a  walled  garden,  on  the  highway 
leading  inland  from  Alella,  within  a  stone's-throw  of 
the  spot  where  he  was  arrested  on  the  night  of  August  31, 
1909.  Outwardly,  at  any  rate,  his  birthplace  makes 
much  more  show  than  his  own  so-called  "  villa "  of  Mas 
Germinal. 

Up  to  the  age  of  ten,  he  attended  the  Municipal 
School  at  Alella,  and  for  the  next  two  years  he  went  to  a 
similar  school  at  Teya,  a  neighbouring  village.  At  the  age 
of  twelve,  his  schooldays  ended,    fhe  Municipal  School  of 

'  In  a  pamphlet  of  69  pages  entitled  Ordinary  Process  conducted  before 
the  Military  Tribunals  ,  .  .  against  Francisco  Ferrer  Guardia  (ftticio 
Ordinario  seguido  ante  los  Tribunates  Mililares  ert  la  Plaza  de  Barcelona 
contra  Francisco  Ferrer  Guardia).  In  future  references  to  this  publication, 
I  shall  simply  call  it  the  Process.  A  translation  of  all  the  essential  portions  of 
it  will  be  found  in  the  Appendix. 


4  FRANCISCO  FERRER 

Alella  was  in  his  time,  says  my  local  informant,  "  little 
better  than  a  stable."  It  has  since  been  "  done  up,"  and 
is  now  a  cheerful  room  enough,  measuring  some  40  feet 
by  25,  with  a  small  inner  room  off  it,  which  has  no 
window  or  means  of  ventilation.  It  serves  a  village  of 
1400  people.  The  walls  are  decorated  with  a  crucifix 
and  gaudy  pictures  from  the  Lives  of  the  Saints,  together 
with  a  printed  hymn  to  the  Spanish  Flag,  which  the  little 
Catalans  have  to  sing  every  day.  There  is  no  playground 
save  the  village  street.  The  schoolmaster,  apparently  an 
intelligent  man,  receives  a  salary  of  less  that  ;^30  a  year. 
One  has  only  to  see  the  Escuela  Publica  of  Alella  to 
understand  Ferrer's  conviction  that  education  is  the  first 
thing  needful  for  Spain  ;  and  it  must  be  remembered  that 
Catalonia  is  not  the  most  backward  region  of  the  Peninsula, 
but  the  most  advanced. 

In  an  autobiographical  note  which  Ferrer  contributed  to 
the  Almanack- Annuaire  de  la  Libre-Pensie  Internationale^ 
for  1908,  he  says  of  himself:  "While  still  a  child  he  was 
deeply  moved  by  the  stories  told  him  by  one  of  his  uncles 
of  the  conspiracies  of  General  Prim  and  other  revolution- 
aries, who  sought  to  overthrow  the  Bourbon  monarchy. 
And  when,  in  1868,  Isabella  II.  was  forced  to  abandon 
the  throne  and  take  refuge  abroad,  Ferrer,  then  only  nine 
years  old,  took  part  in  the  popular  rejoicings.  All  these 
things  left  their  mark  upon  his  spirit.  From  that  time 
forward,  he  never  ceased  to  interest  himself  in  the  political 
struggle,  taking  his  stand  on  the  side  of  those  who  desire 
more  happiness  and  well-being,   against  those  who  are 

'  In  this  document,  as  quoted  in  Un  Martyr  des  PrHres,  the  date  of  his 
birth  is  given  as  January  13,  1857 ;  but  I  am  assured  by  his  brother  that  this 
is  wrong.  One  would  suppose  it  a  mere  misprint,  were  it  not  that  a  few  lines 
lower  down  he  is  stated  to  have  been  eleven  years  old  in  1868.  In  the  text 
I  have  substituted  "nine  "  for  **  eleven." 


MARRIED   IN   HASTE  5 

determined  that  they  alone  shall  enjoy  life,  often  at  the 
expense  of  others." 

At  the  age  of  thirteen  he  obtained  employment  in  the 
shop  of  a  corn  and  seed  merchant  (some  say  a  draper)  in 
San  Martin  de  Provensals,  a  district  of  Barcelona.  It  is 
usually  said  that  the  influence  of  this  employer,  an  ardent 
anti-clerical,  undermined  the  orthodoxy  which  he  had 
imbibed  at  home,  and  had  brought  with  him  from  home 
and  school ;  ^  but  it  is  evident  from  his  own  account,  in 
the  passage  above  quoted,  that  the  seeds  of  revolt  had 
been  sown  in  his  mind  even  before  he  left  Alella.  By 
the  time  he  reached  maturity,  in  any  case,  he  was  an 
avowed  and  ardent  Republican  and  Freethinker. 

At  about  the  age  of  twenty  he  entered  the  service  of 
the  Madrid,  Saragossa  and  Alicante  Railway  Company, 
and  shortly  afterwards  married  a  young  woman  whom  he 
met  in  the  train.  As  "  inspector  of  tickets  "  he  had  con- 
stantly to  pass  and  repass  between  the  French  frontier 
and  Barcelona,  and  was  thus  enabled  to  become  a  valued 
medium  of  communication  between  Ruiz  Zorrilla,  the 
Republican  leader,  then  in  exile  at  Geneva,  and  his 
adherents  in  Spain.  "  In  this  condition  he  continued," 
said  the  Auditor-General,^  "until  May  19,  1885,  when  he 
resigned  his  post  and  settled  in  Paris ;  this  resolve  being 
connected  with  the  insurrection  of  Santa  Coloma  [de 
Fames],  in  which  he  took  some  part ;  with  the  domestic 
troubles  which  led  to  his  separation  from  his  wife,  who 
fired  two  shots  at  him ;  and  with  a  supposed  robbery  of 
money  from  a  priest  who  was  travelling  on  the  Gerona 
line."  It  is  characteristic  of  the  judicial  methods  pursued 
in  this  case  that  a  *'  supposed  robbery  "  of  which  Ferrer 

•  Un  Martyr  des  Frttres,  p,  9  ;  McCabe,  The  Martyrdom  0/ Ferrer,  p.  13. 

*  As  to  thii  officer  and  his  function,  see  footnote,  p.  35. 


6  FRANCISCO   FERRER 

was  never  formally  accused,  much  less  convicted,  should 
have  been  raked  up  to  his  prejudice,  in  a  secret  document, 
never  communicated  either  to  him  or  to  his  Defender, 
twenty-five  years  after  the  "  supposed  "  event.  From  the 
very  language  of  the  Auditor,  however,  it  is  clear  that  his 
removal  to  Paris  was  in  no  sense  a  flight.  He  resigned 
his  post  on  a  specified  date,  and  departed. 


II 

THE  THREE  REVOLVER-SHOTS 

The  domestic  troubles  above  mentioned  are  absolutely 
foreign  to  the  question  of  Ferrer's  guilt  or  innocence,  and 
the  prosecution  did  not,  in  fact,  dwell  upon  them  at  his 
trial.  But  as  it  is  constantly  stated  by  his  unofficial 
accusers,  clerical  and  lay,  that  he  "abandoned  his  wife 
and  three  children,"  the  story  of  his  unhappy  marriage 
must  be  briefly  related.  In  such  cases  it  very  seldom 
happens  that  the  faults  are  all  on  one  side,  and  the 
essential  facts  are  usually  very  hard  to  get  at.  In  this 
case,  however,  I  have  a  witness  to  produce  who  had 
every  opportunity  of  observation,  and  whose  testimony 
leaves  very  little  doubt  as  to  the  due  apportionment  of 
responsibility. 

Ferrer's  early  years  in  Paris  were  years  of  poverty  and 
struggle.  He  first  became  what  is  described  as  a  wine- 
broker,  then  opened  a  small  restaurant  in  the  Rue  du 
Pont  Neuf;  and  from  1889  onwards  he  made  his  living 
by  giving  lessons  in  Spanish,  while  acting  as  unpaid 
secretary  to  Ruiz  Zorrilla.  He  was  beginning  to  acquire 
some  reputation  as  a  teacher,  when  a  sensational  incident 
brought  his  name  into  brief  but  undesirable  prominence. 
Under  the  heading  of  "  Nouvelles  Diverses,"  the  Figaro 
of  June  13,  1894,  published  the  following  paragraphs: — 


8  FRANCISCO  FERRER 


A  Woman's  Vengeance. 

About  nine  o'clock  yesterday  evening,  three  revolver- 
shots  caused  a  lively  excitement  in  the  Faubourg  Mont- 
martre.  A  woman  had  fired  upon  her  husband.  She 
would  have  gone  on  firing  if  some  passer-by  had  not 
disarmed  her. 

While  the  injured  man  was  taken  to  a  neighbouring 
pharmacy,  his  assailant  was  brought  before  M.  Mouquin, 
commissary  of  police.  There  she  alleged  that,  being  the 
mother  of  four  children,  abandoned  by  her  husband,  she 
had  desired  to  avenge  herself,  and  that  she  only  regretted 
not  to  have  killed  the  wretch  whom  she  hated. 

After  having  had  his  wounds,  which  were  very  slight, 
attended   to,    the   husband   told   a  wholly  different   tale. 

He  is  named  F.  F ,  and  is  a  teacher  of  Spanish.     He 

met  his  wife,  ten  years  ago,  in  a  railway-train  ;  she  repre- 
sented herself  as  being  oppressed  by  her  family  ;  he  took 
pity  on  her  and  married  her.  They  came  to  live  in  Paris. 
He  has,  in  fact,  had  four  children  by  her.  One  of  these 
died  last  August ;  two  are  in  Australia,  in  the  care  of  a 

brother  of  M.  F ;   the   fourth,  a   child   of    three,   is 

being  brought  up  at  Moret  [sic],  under  her  father's  direc- 
tions.    M.  F has,  indeed,  left  his  wife,  by  reason,  as 

he  states,  of  her  misconduct. 

The  inquiry  with  which  the  magistrate  is  proceeding 
will  show  on  which  side  the  truth  lies. 

On  the  following  day  (June  14)  the  same  paper  gave 
another  account  of  the  case,  this  time  entirely  from  the 
point  of  view  of  the  wife,  who  had  gained  the  ear,  it 
would  seem,  both  of  the  magistrate  and  the  reporter.  It 
does  not  appear  that  Ferrer  took  any  further  steps  in  the 
matter,  or  was  examined  even  at  the  ultimate  trial.  This 
is  the  lady's  story  as  given  in  the  Figaro  of  June  14,  under 
the  heading  of  "  L'Affaire  Ferrer  "  : — 


"THE  UNHAPPY  MOTHER"  9 

.  .  .  They  came  to  live  in  Paris,  in  tiie   Rue  Richer, 
and  each  gave  lessons  in  Spanish.     But  the  peace  of  the 
household  was  very  soon  troubled,  and  M.  Ferrer,  profiting 
by  an  absence  of  his  wife,  carried  off  the  furniture  of  their 
flat,  leaving   to  her  the   burden   of  a   rather   high  rent. 
Further,  he  carried  off  the  three  children  who  remained  to 
them.     Two  of  them  he  sent  to  Australia,  to  his  brother  ; 
and  the  youngest,  a  child  of  three,  he  put  out  to  nurse  at 
Moree  (Loire-et-Cher).     When  the  poor  woman  returned, 
great  was  her  despair  on  finding  her  children  gone.     She 
made  several  requests  to  her  husband  to  be  allowed  to  see, 
to  embrace  them  ;  but  she  met  with  a  flat  refusal.     M. 
Ferrer  had  commenced  an  action  for  divorce  against  her, 
and  he  declined,  until  the  action  was  decided,  to  let  her 
see  her  children.     Again  and  again  the  unhappy  mother 
had  gone  to  M.  Mouquin,  commissary  of  police,  to  beg  for 
his  assistance.     The  magistrate  could  only  exhort  her  to 
have  patience,  to  be  calm.     She  must  await  the  authoriza- 
tion of  the  Tribunal.     All  those  who  knew  Mme.  Ferrer, 
and,  knowing  her  respectability,  were  interested  in  her,  also 
advised  her  to  wait.     To  wait !  she  could  do  so  no  longer. 
The  obstacles   placed  in    her  way  exalted   her  maternal 
love,  and  if  she  could  not  see  her  children  again,  she  pre- 
ferred to  die.     It  was  with  the  fixed  intention  of  shootingf 
herself  before  her  husband's  eyes,  if  he  persisted  in  keeping 
her  apart  from  her  children,  that  she  awaited  M.  Ferrer  in 
the  Rue  Richer.     She  came  up  to  him  and  entreated,  in 
tones    of    supplication,  to    see   her   children.      His  only 
answer  was  a  disdainful  silence,  as  he  passed  on  his  way. 
Exasperated   by  his  contempt,  the  unhappy  woman  had 
no   thought  but   that   of  vengeance.     She   fired   at   her 
husband,  but  inflicted  only  an  insignificant  wound. 

Yesterday  morning  she  was  again  brought  to  the  office 
of  M.  Mouquin.  She  adjured  the  magistrate  to  tell  her 
where  her  children  were. 

"Two  are  in  Australia,  with  your  brother-in-law," 
replied  the  commissary ;  "  the  third  is  at  Morce." 


10  FRANCISCO   FERRER 

"  In  Australia  !  "  she  cried  with  anguish.     "  Ah !  they 
are  lost  to  me !     I  shall  see  them  no  more  ! " 
And  she  fell  senseless  to  the  floor. 

Had  there  been  nothing  else  in  this  narrative  to  put  us 
on  our  guard,  the  melodramatic  close  would  have  sufficed. 
Let  us  see  how  much  truth  there  is  in  the  whole  story. 

Here  my  task  becomes  a  delicate  one,  for  I  have  to 
call  a  daughter  to  throw  light  on  the  domestic  unhappi- 
ness  of  her  parents.  On  reading  the  above  extracts  from 
the  Figaro,  Mme.  Trinidad  Ferrer  wrote  a  long  statement, 
dated  Paris,  July  6,  1910,  which  she  placed  at  my  dis- 
posal. I  shall  not  reproduce  it  in  full,  for  it  contains  many 
painful  details  which  it  is  quite  unnecessary  to  go  into ; 
but  in  the  portions  I  suppress  there  is  not  a  single  word 
which  tells  against  Francisco  Ferrer.  The  ardent  sincerity 
of  the  writer  must,  I  think,  be  manifest  in  every  line. 

As  the  statement  follows  no  very  definite  order,  I  have 
somewhat  rearranged  as  well  as  compressed  it.  Thus  it 
runs : — 

My  heart  bounded  with  indignation  on  reading  the  so 
false  version  given  by  the  Figaro  of  the  sad  incidents 
which  arose  at  that  time  between  my  parents.  Confiding 
in  you,  I  shall  do  all  I  can  to  establish  the  truth  and  prove 
to  you  what  a  man  of  duty  and  delicacy  was  my  dear  and 
lamented  father.  .  .  .  You  will  understand  the  struggle 
which  passes  in  me,  and  how  painful  is  my  task  as  regards 
my  mother ;  but  the  accusations  against  my  father,  dead, 
and  by  such  a  death !  are  so  monstrous  and  false  that  I 
cannot  but  protest — for  I  tell  the  truth. 

I  was  my  father's  eldest  daughter.  At  the  age  of  five 
I  came  to  France,  with  my  mother  ;  for  my  father  was 
already  there.  Papa  was  for  some  time  secretary  to  Ruiz 
Zorrilla,  and  during  that  time  he  studied  much  ;  for  he 
had  gone  into  business  quite  young,  and  therefore  his 


THE  DAUGHTER'S   DEFENCE       11 

education  was  limited.  It  was  only  after  many  efforts 
that  he  was  able  to  give  lessons  in  Spanish.  Later,  my 
mother  too  gave  lessons.  Every  Sunday,  Papa  went  out 
with  me,  and  with  my  mother  if  she  cared  to  come  ;  other- 
wise with  me  alone.  He  was  a  gentle  and  affectionate 
father,  loving  to  answer  all  my  childish  questions,  and 
frequently  evoking  them. 

We  were  four  daughters.  Paz,  the  second,  was  twenty 
months  younger  than  me.  Luz,  who  died  some  time  before 
the  affair  of  the  revolver,  in  spite  of  all  my  parents'  care 
for  her,  was  three  years  younger  than  me.  Sol,  who  was 
ten  years  my  junior,  has  been  brought  up  by  my  mother. 
My  sister  Paz  was  brought  up  by  my  aunt  Marieta,  wife 
of  my  father's  brother  Jose,  and  in  1892,  at  the  age  of 
eight,  she  went  with  my  uncle  Jose  to  Australia.  She 
wrote  to  us  regularly  every  week,  and  we  as  regularly  to 
her,  except  my  mother,  who  seldom  wrote. 

In  the  light  of  this  statement,  what  are  we  to  think  of 
the  distracted  mother  begging  the  commissary  of  police 
to  tell  her  where  her  children  were,  and  swooning  at  the 
terrible  news  of  their  having  been  spirited  away  to  the 
antipodes  ?  Trinidad  herself  had  meanwhile  joined  Paz 
in  Australia  ;  but,  as  we  shall  see,  her  mother  was  perfectly 
aware  of  her  whereabouts.  Her  statement  now  enters 
upon  some  scenes  of  family  life,  of  which  I  shall  say 
nothing,  except  that  the  child's  sympathies  were  always 
with  her  father.  Her  evidence,  no  doubt,  is  subject  to  a 
certain  amount  of  discount.  Even  the  most  intelligent 
and  observant  child  cannot  look  very  far  beneath  the 
surface  of  a  disastrous  marriage.  She  shows  that  her 
father  acted,  under  extremely  trying  circumstances,  with 
rare  patience  and  dignity;  but  it  is  only  fair  to  remember 
that  patience  and  dignity  may  sometimes  be  precisely 
the  most  unbearable  qualities  a  man  can  display,  and  that 


12  FRANCISCO   FERRER 

he  may  even  calculate  upon  their  exasperating  effect.  I 
see  no  reason  to  think  that  this  was  Ferrer's  case  ;  Mme. 
Trinidad's  story,  indeed,  speaks  as  convincingly  as  possible 
in  her  father's  favour.  I  merely  remind  the  reader  that 
it  cannot  be  taken  as  absolutely  proving  more  than  that 
the  father  earned  the  child's  enthusiastic  affection  and 
loyalty,  and  was  in  her  eyes  a  much-tried  and  long- 
suffering  man. 

She  proceeds : — 

In  the  evening,  after  his  lessons  were  over,  my  father 
used  to  copy  manuscripts,  which  one  of  his  friends  procured 
for  him,  at  a  very  low  rate  of  pay  ;  and  it  was  one  of  my 
mother's  grievances  that,  on  the  evening  after  the  death  of 
my  sister  Luz,  my  father  spent  part  of  the  night  at  this 
arid  task.  Had  he  not  done  so,  he  would  have  lost  the 
work ;  and  in  spite  of  his  great  silent  grief,  he  applied  his 
mind  to  the  mechanical  toil  of  a  word-for-word  copy.  My 
mother  understood  no  grief  which  did  not  express  itself  in 
cries  and  theatrical  outpourings. 

Being  possessed  by  ideas  of  grandeur  and  luxury,  my 
mother  was  a  poor  economist ;  and  in  order  to  guarantee 
the  future — that  is  to  say,  a  few  weeks  in  advance — my 
father  was  obliged  to  give  out  daily  the  five  or  six  francs 
for  household  expenses.  .  .  .  My  father  paid  the  rent  and 
paid  my  teachers.  On  himself  he  spent  nothing  at  all,  for 
he  had  purposely  given  up  smoking,  and  never  went  to  the 
cafe.  His  only  outlay  was  for  newspapers  and  an  occasional 
book — often  for  me. 

It  was  I  who,  with  a  child's  wish  to  act  for  the  best, 
gave  the  immediate  impulse  to  the  separation  of  my 
parents.  This  was  how  it  happened.  Coming  home  one 
day  from  the  communal  school,  I  found  that  the  table  was 
not  laid  for  lunch  and  that  no  meal  had  been  prepared. 
The  maid  excused  herself  to  Papa  by  saying  that  Mama 
had  gone  out  without  leaving  her  any  money.     I  then 


THE   DAUGHTER'S   DEFENCE       13 

advised  Papa  to  send  me  to  a  pension,  and  to  separate 
from  Mama.  They  were  too  unhappy  together ;  and  as 
Mama  also  could  earn  her  living,  perhaps  they  would  be 
able  to  lead  a  quieter  life  apart.  .  .  ,  That  very  day  I 
went  into  pension  with  a  Mme.  Tessier,  who  kept  an  anti- 
clerical school  at  Montreuil ;  and  there  I  remained  until  I 
went  to  Australia. 

The  writer  adds  that  it  may  appear  strange  that  so 
young  a  girl  should  thus  mix  herself  up  in  the  troubles  of 
her  parents,  but  that  she  is  now  twenty-eight,  and  does  not 
feel  that  she  ought  to  have  acted  otherwise. 

When  I  was  at  the  pension  [she  continues]  my  mother 
came  to  see  me  every  Sunday,  from  five  to  six.  She  always 
talked  on  the  assumption  that  she  was  going  to  get  a 
divorce,  and  she  wanted  me  to  live  with  her  after  the 
divorce,  I  was  afraid  that  her  tears  would  break  down 
my  resolution  ;  and  the  horrid  things  she  said  of  my  father 
made  me  sick  at  heart.  It  was  then  that  I  asked  my  father 
to  send  me  to  Australia.  He  went  with  me  to  Marseilles, 
and  consulted  the  Captain  of  the  Armand  Beluc  as  to 
how  he  could  secure  me  an  escort  to  Melbourne.  On  the 
Captain's  recommendation,  I  was  placed  under  the  care  of 
a  respectable  couple,  having  two  children  of  their  own,  to 
whom  my  father,  in  spite  of  his  constant  poverty,  gave  fifty 
francs  for  my  small  expenses  on  the  voyage.  They  handed 
the  fifty  francs  intact  to  my  aunt,  who  came  to  meet  me  on 
my  arrival. 

My  mother  was  never  ignorant  of  my  address.  At 
each  port  of  call  I  wrote  to  her  (for  one  always  loves  one's 
mother),  and  she  knew  the  address  of  my  uncle  in  Australia. 
As  to  my  sister  Sol,  who  had  been  placed  at  nurse,  my 
mother  could  have  kept  her  had  she  wished  to,  or  could 
have  gone  to  see  her,  for  she  knew  the  address  of  the 
nurse. 

My  father,  in  his  delicacy,  never  told   me  that   my 


14  FRANCISCO  FERRER 

mother  had  fired  at  him,  and  never  complained  of  her  to 
me.  Not  till  this  year  did  I  learn  the  result  of  the 
revolver-shots,  which  was  to  deprive  my  father  of  the 
greater  number  of  his  pupils,  through  the  scandal  which 
they  caused.  This  I  say  to  show  you  how,  in  that  dear 
heart,  which  beat  only  for  those  he  loved  and  for  the 
causes  he  thought  just,  there  was  no  room  for  recrimi- 
nations or  for  self-justification  at  the  expense  of  the  mother 
of  his  children. 

I  shall  quote  no  further  from  this  most  interesting 
document.  Let  me  only  add  that  it  is  all  the  more  con- 
vincing, as  the  writer  shows  incidentally  that  after  her 
marriage  a  certain  misunderstanding  arose  between  her 
father  and  herself,  which  was  not  quite  healed  for  several 
years ;  but  even  during  the  time  of  partial  estrangement, 
she  declares,  he  never  failed  to  treat  her  with  forbearance 
and  generosity. 

On  July  3,  1894,  Mme.  Ferrer  came  up  for  trial. 
"  Only  one  ball  having  taken  effect,"  says  the  Figaro,  "  and 
having  caused  but  an  insignificant  wound,  the  accused  was 
not  sent  to  the  Court  of  Assizes,  but  brought  before  the 
8th  Correctional  Chamber."  She  appears  to  have  poured 
forth  afresh,  with  embellishments,  the  story  of  her  wrongs ; 
while  Ferrer  seems  neither  to  have  been  present  nor  in 
any  way  represented. 

"'The  Court,'  said  M.  le  President  Flandin,  'demands 
nothing  better,  madame,  than  to  give  full  weight  to  all 
these  attenuating  circumstances.  But  the  deed  which  you 
committed  was  a  very  grave  one.  You  must  at  least  pro- 
mise that  you  will  not  again  attempt  your  husband's  life.' 

" '  Oh,  sir,'  replied  the  accused,  sobbing,  '  I  promise 
that !  My  husband  is  dead  to  me.  I  shall  not  do  it 
again.    But  let  me  have  my  child  restored  to  me ! ' 


p 

tn 

O 


CO       fe 

CO    j/^ 

O     O 


>       .    w- 


a 

c 
<u 


Pi 

w 


o 

o 


o 
o 

75 


H 


EXIT  MME.   FERRER  15 

"Mme.  Ferrer  added  that  unfortunately  it  was  to  be 
feared  that  her  husband  had  sent  the  little  girl  abroad. 

"The  Court  condemned  the  unhappy  woman  to  one 
year's  imprisonment,  but  with  application  of  the  Berenger 
Law."  In  other  words,  she  was  at  once  released  under  a 
first-offenders  act. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  mother  did,  shortly  afterwards, 
obtain  possession  of  little  Sol,  and  carried  her  off  to 
Russia,  where  she  herself  formed  other  ties.  For  years 
Ferrer  tried  hard  to  obtain  a  divorce.  In  Spain  it  was 
impossible ;  it  might  have  been  possible  in  France  could 
he  have  secured  naturalization,  but  in  this  he  did  not 
succeed.  Even  down  to  1898,  we  find  him  writing  with 
regret  of  the  failure  of  his  efforts.^ 

Whatever  judgment  we  may  form  as  to  Ferrer's  part 
in  the  sordid  story  above   outlined,  the  hundred-times- 
repeated   statement   that    he   "abandoned   his   wife   and 
three  children  "  is  manifestly  false.     So  far  was  he  from 
abandoning  the  two  daughters  who  were  left,  to  him  that, 
in  spite  of  his  poverty,  he  twice — in  1896  and  in   1898 — 
scraped  together  enough  money  to  go  out  to  Australia 
and  see  them.     "  At  these  times,"  writes  Mme.  Trinidad, 
"  he   showed   himself  full   of  paternal  solicitude   for  us, 
qualified   by    the   fear   of    restricting   our    little    childish 
liberties."     She  adds  that  she  has  recently  learned,  from 
those  who  knew  him  at  the  time,  that  he  submitted  to 
severe  privations  in  order  to  meet  the  expense  of  these 
voyages.     After  her  father's  death,  moreover,  Mme.  Trini- 
dad prosecuted  the  printer  of  a  defamatory  poster,  exhibited 
in    Charlcvillc,    France,    in    which,    among    many    other 
calumnies,  it  was  stated  that  Ferrer  was  "  miserable  comme 
pere."     The  "Jugement  rendu  par  le  Tribunal   Civil  de 

'  Two  letters  of  1898  printed  in  La  Ragione  (Rome),  November  11,  1909. 


16  FRANCISCO  FERRER 

Charleville  le  3  Mars,  1910,"  now  lies  before  me,  showing 
that  the  printer  had  to  pay  400  francs  damages  and  the 
costs  of  the  action,  and  was  moreover  ordered  to  advertise 
the  judgment,  at  his  own  expense,  both  by  bills  to  be 
posted  in  various  towns  of  the  neighbourhood,  and  by 
advertisements  in  the  local  papers. 

The  second  daughter,  Paz,  does  not,  like  Trinidad, 
share  her  father's  ideas.  In  a  letter  addressed  to  the  Gil 
Bias  of  November  16,  1909,  she  writes  :  "A  Spaniard  by 
birth,  I  remain  entirely  a  Spaniard,  and  respect  the 
religious  and  political  institutions  of  my  country,  I  have 
often  told  my  father  so.  He  did  not  get  angry;  he 
smiled,  and  that  was  all."  At  the  same  time  she  is  no 
less  emphatic  than  her  sister  in  declaring  him  to  have 
been  a  most  considerate  and  affectionate  father.  "  I 
affirm,"  she  says,  "  that  I  have  never  had  any  complaint 
to  make  against  him.  When  I  wanted  to  devote  myself 
to  the  theatre,  he  opposed  me.  He  used  all  the  arguments 
that  a  father  can  use  to  his  daughter.  But  I  had  the 
passion  of  my  art.  .  .  .  He  ended  by  yielding  to  my 
entreaties.  So  long  as  I  required  it,  he  supported  me  ; 
he  gave  me  my  first  teachers.  Whenever  I  have  appealed 
to  his  heart,  his  heart  has  answered.  I  cannot  enter  into 
his  reasons  for  arranging  his  private  life  as  he  did.  All  I 
can  say  is  that  I  think  of  him  with  unmixed  gratitude  and 
love." 

This  young  lady,  while  denying  that  her  father  was 
"an  organizer  of  revolts  or  a  propagator  of  crime,"  has 
come  to  the  conclusion  that  "  his  death  was  imposed  on 
the  Spanish  Government  by  reasons  of  state."  It  would 
be  curious  to  know  whether  the  Maura  Cabinet  values 
this  testimonial. 

In  sum,  then,  we  may  utterly  dismiss  the  legend  which 


HUSBAND  AND   FATHER  17 

represents  Ferrer  as  an  unnatural  and  heartless  father.  It 
is  a  falsehood  without  a  shadow  of  foundation.  That  he 
was  a  model  husband  cannot  be  affirmed  with  equal 
certainty,  though  the  evidence  goes  to  show  that  he  was 
patient  and  forbearing  under  sore  provocation  ;  and,  at 
any  rate,  the  records  of  the  8th  Correctional  Chamber 
of  Paris  are  there  to  prove  that  he  had  not  exactly  a 
model  wife.  He  afterwards,  as  we  shall  see,  formed 
irregular  ties  which  it  was  not  in  his  power  to  legitimize  ; 
but  this  was  not  until,  as  his  wife  put  it,  "  he  was  dead 
to  her,"  and  she  had  placed  the  breadth  of  Europe,  as  well 
as  other  obstacles,  between  them. 


Ill 

MADEMOISELLE  MEUNIER'S  MONEY 

There  is  no  doubt  that  during  the  first  ten  years  of  his 
life  in  Paris — that  is  to  say,  from  1885  to  1895,  or  even 
a  little  later — Ferrer  was  closely  connected  with  the 
Spanish  revolutionary-republican  party,  and  was  deep 
in  its  councils.  This  he  himself  never  denied.  On  the 
other  hand,  he  did  not  admit  that  he  had  ever  been  an 
"anarquista  de  acci6n" — an  abettor  of  bomb-throwing. 
It  is  probably  true  that  he  at  no  time  approved  the 
sporadic  and  insensate  use  of  dynamite  which  has  given 
Barcelona  an  evil  reputation.  But  we  shall  have  to 
consider  later  the  validity  of  a  document,  dating  from 
1892,  which,  if  it  has  not  been  garbled,  shows  that  at  that 
date  he  thought  of  organizing  a  gigantic  revolutionary 
plot,  into  which  the  use  of  dynamite  could  not  but  enter. 
The  question  of  his  views  in  the  early  nineties,  however, 
has  no  bearing  upon  his  action  in  1909 ;  for  it  is  absolutely 
certain  that,  soon  after  the  collapse  of  his  family  life,  a 
change  began  to  come  over  his  attitude  towards  the 
republican  party,  and  towards  political  action  in  general. 
Briefly,  he  came  to  feel  that  political  revolutions  could 
bear  no  lasting  fruits  in  Spain  so  long  as  more  than  fifty 
per  cent,  of  his  countrymen  remained  "  analfabetos " — 
illiterates — and     the    education    of   the    remainder    was 


MADEMOISELLE  MEUNIER  19 

miserable  both  in  methods  and  in  spirit.  The  reality  of 
this  change  of  heart  is  questioned  by  his  accusers,  and  we 
shall  have  later  to  look  into  that  point.  It  is  certain,  at 
any  rate,  that  he  acted  as  though  his  conversion  were  real, 
and  devoted  himself,  with  all  his  energy  and  enthusi- 
asm, to  education.  How  he  was  enabled  to  found  the 
"  Escuela  Moderna  " — the  Modern  School — has  now  to  be 
related. 

There  lived  in  Paris  in  the  'nineties  a  certain  Madame 
Meunier,  whose  deceased  husband  had  enriched  himself 
during  the  Haussmannizing  of  the  capital.  Her  only 
daughter,  Jeanne  Ernestine,  was  an  accomplished  musician 
and  something  of  a  linguist.  Both  mother  and  daughter 
were  fond  of  travel,  and  in  1894  they  made  up  their  minds 
to  visit  Spain.  In  preparation  for  this  journey,  Mile. 
Ernestine  desired  to  take  lessons  in  Spanish,  and  thus 
made  the  acquaintance  of  Francisco  Ferrer.  The  lady 
was  at  this  time  well  advanced  towards  middle  age,  and 
not  even  Ferrer's  enemies  have  seriously  attempted  to 
make  out  that  their  relation  ever  transcended  the  limits 
of  friendship.  Calumny  has  in  this  case  taken  a  different 
line,  and  represented  Ferrer  as  a  Tartuffe  who  affected 
piety  in  order  to  ingratiate  himself  with  a  devout  and 
saint-like  daughter  of  the  Church.  Mile.  Meunier,  at  all 
events,  took  her  course  of  lessons,  and  went  with  her 
mother  to  Madrid,  where  the  old  lady  died.  Perhaps 
this  sad  experience  gave  the  daughter  a  distaste  for 
Spanish,  or  perhaps  the  scandal  of  the  revolver-shots 
made  her  draw  away  from  Ferrer.  At  any  rate,  they 
appear  to  have  lost  sight  of  each  other  for  some  time. 
After  the  death  of  Ruiz  Zorrillai  in  1895,  Ferrer,  knowing 
Mile.  Meunier  to  be  an  autograph-collector,  sent  her  a 
letter   of    his   late   chief,   and   this   led    to   a   renewal   of 


20  FRANCISCO   FERRER 

acquaintance,  and  of  lessons  in  Spanish.^  But  Ferrer, 
as  he  himself  confessed,  always  tried  to  make  his 
language-lessons  a  means  of  propagating  his  ideas  on 
politics  and  religion.  "  I  cannot,"  he  says,  "  conceive 
life  without  propaganda.  Wherever  I  may  be — in  the 
street,  in  public  places,  in  the  tramway,  in  the  train 
— with  whomsoever  I  may  find  myself  in  company,  I 
cannot  but  try  to  make  a  convert.  I  have  often  exposed 
myself  to  rebuffs ;  but  I  cannot  help  it,  or  rather  I  do 
not  try  to  help  it.  I  would  rather  appear  indiscreet  than 
withhold  a  word  or  an  observation  whereby  I  may  possibly 
make  people  reflect."  This  confession  occurs  in  an  article 
entitled  "  The  Origin  of  a  Fortune  "  which  he  contributed 
to  the  Espaila  Nueva  of  June  i6,  1906 — an  article  in 
which  he  gives  his  own  version  of  his  relations  with  Mile. 
Meunier. 

The  most  interesting  case  I  encountered  [he  says] 
was  that  of  a  lady,  Catholic,  apostolic  and  Roman, 
whose  conviction  amounted  to  fanaticism.  More  than  a 
year  passed  before  I  could  speak  to  her  of  religion. 
Thanks  to  the  confidence  with  which  my  seriousness 
inspired  her,  and  to  a  certain  affinity  of  taste  in  matters 
of  art,  of  travel  and  of  manners,  I  was  able  at  last  to 
permit  myself  to  approach  the  subject  on  which  my  heart 
was  set. 

As  the  fortress  I  wanted  to  take  was  a  formidable  one, 
I  could  not  attack  it  alone,  but  began  by  calling  to  my  aid 
Volney,  whose  Rtdns  I  induced  her  to  read.  Naturally 
this  book  made  a  breach  :  it  could  not  fail  to  do  so  in  the 
case  of  any  person  who,  however  fanatical,  was  at  the 
same  time  sincere.  I  gave  her  other  books,  and  confined 
myself  to  discussing  with  her  the  thoughts  which  these 
works  suggested  to  her. 

'  The  incident  of  the  autograph  was   related  to  me  by  Mme,  Trinidad 
Ferrer. 


THE   TIRELESS   PROPAGANDIST     21 

Such  was  my  eagerness  for  propagating  scientific  ideas 
that,  on  the  appearance  in  France  of  Malvert's  Science  et 
Religion,  I  paid,  out  of  my  savings,  for  the  right  of 
translation,  and  commissioned  my  dear  Nakens  to  trans- 
late and  publish  it  in  Spanish.  The  first  copy  received 
from  Madrid  I  destined  for  my  pupil,  already  less  of  a 
fanatic,  though  still  far  from  being  sufficiently  seasoned  for 
such  reading. 

A  few  days  later  I  received  a  letter  from  her,  reproach- 
ing me  with  having  sent  her  such  a  book,  though  I  well 
knew  her  beliefs,  saying  that  she  had  burned  it  as  an 
insult  to  her  deepest  convictions,  and  announcing  that  she 
required  no  further  lessons  from  me.  I  replied  that  I 
deplored  having  given  her  offence,  but  that,  as  I  had  done 
it  with  the  good  object  of  instructing  her,  my  conscience 
was  at  ease,  though  I  was  sorry  to  lose  her  as  a  pupil. 

At  the  end  of  the  vacation,  the  lady  presented  herself 
again,  apologizing  for  her  movement  of  impatience,  and 
asking  me  to  resume  my  lessons  ;  but  at  the  same  time 
begging  that  I  would  not  talk  to  her  of  religion.  To  that 
I  agreed  ;  but  not  many  lessons  passed  without  the  bone 
of  contention  cropping  up  between  us. 

Those  who  lived  in  Paris  during  the  Dreyfus  Affair 
will  certainly  never  forget  it.  For  my  part,  I  cannot  but 
call  it  one  of  my  most  treasured  memories. 

I  need  not  say  that  I  was  a  Dreyfusard,  and  that  I 
often  talked  myself  hoarse  in  pleading  his  cause.  I  lost 
some  pupils  and  made  some  enemies. 

Like  all  the  Catholics  and  reactionaries,  the  lady  of 
whom  I  speak  was  against  Dreyfus  ;  and  the  result  may 
be  imagined.  How  could  I  keep  silent .''  How  not  talk  of 
religion  ?  How  avoid  disputes  }  To  make  a  long  story 
short,  I  talked,  I  reasoned  and  I  advanced  proofs,  until 
she  was  convinced  of  the  malignity,  the  hypocrisy,  or 
the  ignorance  of  her  friends,  and  of  the  justice  of  my 
arguments. 

From  this  time  forward  I  was  able  to  open  my  whole 


22  FRANCISCO   FERRER 

mind  to  her  without  rebuke,  to  expound  to  her  my  philo- 
sophic ideas,  and  to  demolish,  stone  by  stone,  the  fortress 
of  her  prejudices.  She  ended  by  accepting  my  views  in 
all  that  concerned  the  church  {el  cultd)  and  the  priests ; 
but  she  still  feared  to  cut  herself  loose  from  the  ideas  of 
the  soul,  of  a  life  beyond  the  grave,  and  of  God. 

She  was  very  fond  of  travelling.  Her  mother  being 
dead,  she  had  now  to  find  companionship  in  her  adminis- 
trators ;  and  she  manifested  a  desire  to  visit  Spain  along 
with  me.  I  asked  my  fiancee  to  serve  as  her  travelling 
companion,  and  the  three  of  us  set  off  for  Barcelona, 
Madrid  (where  Sr.  Nakens  did  us  the  honour  to  invite  us 
to  an  excellent  fricassee  of  his  own  preparation),  Anda- 
lusia, etc. 

Our  lessons  continued,  and  in  the  vacations  we  tra- 
velled— to  Portugal,  to  England,  and  finally  to  Italy  and 
Switzerland,  where,  at  Geneva,  on  August  24,  1900,  I  told 
her  that  I  did  not  want  any  longer  to  lead  this  egoistic, 
pleasure-seeking  life,  when  there  was  so  much  to  be  done 
for  ignorant  and  suffering  humanity.  She  agreed  with  me, 
and  offered  to  stand  by  me  in  whatever  I  proposed. 

It  may  readily  be  imagined  that  during  these  journeys 
my  tongue  was  not  idle,  and  that  the  exchange  of  ideas 
went  on  incessantly.  She  believed  that  we  were  born  with 
the  idea  of  God  already  implanted  in  our  minds ;  but  I 
convinced  her,  by  argument  and  example,  that  a  child 
knows  nothing  except  what  it  is  told  or  taught.  Thus  she 
came  to  agree  with  me  that  our  ideas  and  beliefs  are 
simply  those  which  are  implanted  in  us  in  childhood, 
except  in  so  far  as  we  may  subsequently  modify  them. 

I  expounded  to  her  my  plan  of  teaching,  based  solely 
upon  the  Natural  Sciences,  whereby  the  child  and  the 
youth  are  able  to  explain  to  themselves  the  origin  of  all 
things,  and  learn  at  the  same  time  the  trtie  origin  of  all  the 
evils  that  afflict  humanity :  wars,  pestilences,  religions,  etc. 
She  approved  my  plan,  and  placed  at  my  disposition  the 
money  necessary  for  the  enterprise. 


FRATERNAL  FRIENDSHIP  23 

Ferrer  then  gives  some  details  as  to  Mile.  Meunier's 
will,  which  I  shall  have  presently  to  go  into  more  fully 
than  he  does.     His  statement  concludes  as  follows  : — 

What  may  seem  most  surprising  is  that  there  was 
never  anything  between  us  except  a  profound  fraternal 
friendship,  founded  on  personal  sympathy  and  similarity 
in  humanitarian  feeling.  Not  even  on  New  Year's  day  did 
we  ever  exchange  a  kiss,  though  on  that  day,  in  France, 
this  custom  obtains  even  between  those  who  most  detest 
each  other.  However  strange  it  may  appear,  this  is  the 
simple  truth  ;  and  I  am  thereby  enabled  with  all  the  more 
confidence  to  exalt  the  principle  which  the  Escuela 
Moderna  represents  :  the  preparation  for  a  free  and  happy 
humanity,  without  wars  or  other  struggles,  individual  or 
collective. 

I  have  reproduced  this  document  at  length,  not  merely 
for  the  sake  of  the  facts  it  embodies,  but  still  more  for  the 
clear  insight  it  gives  us  into  the  writer's  character.  All 
the  facts,  it  may  be  said  at  once,  are  fully  borne  out  by 
independent  evidence.  But  even  if  such  evidence  were 
lacking,  could  any  unprejudiced  person  read  the  statement 
and  disbelieve  it  ?  Does  it  not  bear  the  mark  of  candour 
— nay,  of  ingenuousness — in  every  line  ?  From  the — 
somewhat  irrelevant — point  of  view  of  our  English  preju- 
dices, social  and  intellectual,  it  is  at  many  points  open  to 
criticism.  The  irrepressible  proselytism  of  the  man  sug- 
gests that  detestable  phrase,  "bad  form,"  while  his  crude 
and  self-complacent  dogmatism  must  doubtless  be  very 
distressing  to  cultured  persons  who  keep  their  souls 
quiescent  in  a  twilight  of  "philosophic  doubt."  Without 
being  such  a  cultured  person,  I  neither  share  Ferrer's 
belief  that  "the  origin  of  all  things"  is  to  be  learnt  in 
a  scientific  text-book,   nor  do  I  consider  this  dogma   a 


24  FRANCISCO   FERRER 

fortunate  basis  for  a  system  of  education.  But  whatever 
our  criticisms  of  the  character  revealed  in  this  autobiographic 
fragment,  we  must  surely  admit  it  to  be  a  genuine,  spon- 
taneous, inartificial  character,  in  nowise  apt  for  year-long 
dissimulation  exercised  in  the  interests  of  a  ferocious 
fanaticism.  Yet  that  is  the  theory  advanced  by  those  who 
insist  that  his  enthusiasm  for  education  was  a  mere  cloak 
for  violent  and  bloodthirsty  anarchism. 

When  Ferrer  says  that  he  invited  his  "  fiancee  "  {novia) 
to  be  Mile.  Meunier's  companion  on  their  journeys,  he 
uses  a  word  which  may  be  literally  accurate,  since  he  was 
at  that  time  still  trying  to  obtain  a  divorce,  and,  had  he 
succeeded,  would  have  married  this  lady ;  but  their  rela- 
tion was  not  that  usually  understood  by  betrothal.  The 
lady's  name  has  often  appeared  in  print,  but  it  is  imma- 
terial, and  need  not  be  repeated  here.  She  is  a  French- 
woman, cultivated  and  very  intelligent.  For  about  nine 
years  she  shared  Ferrer's  life ;  and  she  bore  him,  in  1900, 
a  son,  named  Riego,  in  honour  of  a  Spanish  revolutionary 
hero  of  the  early  nineteenth  century.  The  rupture  between 
them,  which  took  place  in  1905,  was  far  from  amicable,  so 
that,  in  respect  to  Ferrer's  character  as  a  man,  the  lady  is 
a  hostile  witness.  All  the  more  trustworthy  is  her  evi- 
dence as  to  facts  within  her  knowledge ;  and  she  has 
confirmed  to  me,  in  every  detail,  Ferrer's  account  of 
his  relations  with  Mile.  Meunier,  who  became  her  most 
intimate  friend.  "  Was  Mile.  Meunier  a  woman  of  intelli- 
gence ? "  I  asked  her.  "  EUe  ^tait  plutot  bonne — tr^s- 
bonne,"  was  her  reply. 

The  journeys  which  these  three  made  in  company 
extended  from  Aberdeen  in  the  north  to  Tangier  in  the 

south.     Mile.  B recalls  very  clearly  the  conversation 

at  Geneva,  in  August,  1900,  to  which  Ferrer  refers.     The 


MADEMOISELLE  MEUNIER'S  WILL    25 

result  of  it  was  that  Mile.  Meunier  determined  to  endow, 
in  one  way  or  another,  the  educational  work  on  which 
Ferrer's  heart  was  set ;  and  on  returning  to  Paris  she 
consulted  a  notary  on  the  subject.  But  at  that  time  she 
had  little  ready  money  at  her  command.  A  large  part  of 
her  fortune  was  tied  up  in  an  investment,  excellent  in 
itself,  but  which  precluded  immediate  realization  ;  and  she 
could  look  for  no  help  from  her  man  of  affairs,  Signor 
Cesare  Coppola,  of  Milan,  who  would  have  opposed  to  the 
utmost  any  such  employment  of  her  means.  She  there- 
fore made  no  immediate  donation  or  allowance  ;  but  in  her 
will,^  dated  January  20,  190 1,  she  left  to  Ferrer  a  house  in 
Paris  (11  Rue  des  Petites  Ecuries),  producing  a  yearly 
revenue  of  about  ;i^  1400.  This  was,  it  would  seem,  some- 
thing like  half  her  fortune ;  for  the  rest,  she  left  to  a 
godson  a  house  in  Milan  ;  to  six  other  god-children  and 
friends  94,000  francs,  in  sums  ranging  from  50,000  francs 
to  2000  francs  ;  to  seven  persons  (apparently  a  governess 
and  servants)  annuities  amounting  in  all  to  10,900  francs  ; 
and  to  the  Paris  Conservatoire  a  yearly  sum  to  found  a 
prize  for  harp-playing.  Signor  Coppola  was  to  be  her 
residuary  legatee  and  executor. 

To  the  reh'gious  institutions,  to  which,  in  bygone  days, 
she  had  been  a  liberal  benefactress,  she  left  nothing  at  all. 
One  paragraph  of  her  will,  however,  ran  as  follows  : — 

I  desire  to  die  in  the  bosom  of  my  Holy  Mother  the 
Church.  My  burial  shall  be  simple  and  religious,  and  of 
the  money  immediately  available  at  my  death  the  sum  of 
3000  francs  shall  be  devoted  to  the  saying  of  masses  (pre- 
ferably in  France)  for  the  repose  of  my  soul  and  that  of 

'  I  have  before  me  a  copy  of  her  will,  deposited  in  the  Archivio  Notarile 
of  Milan.  In  it  her  name  is  spelt  "Meunie" — no  doubt  by  the  Italian 
copyist. 


26  FRANCISCO   FERRER 

my  beloved  mother.     My  body  shall  rest  in  the  Cemetery 
of  Montmartre.^ 

Signor  Coppola,  and  after  him  all  the  enemies  of 
Ferrer,  have  asserted  that  he  deceived  Mile.  Meunier  as  to 
his  ideas,  and  professed  to  be  "ultra-conservative  and 
religious."  Fortunately,  there  is  no  need  to  discuss  the 
question  whether  he  was  capable  of  such  a  monstrous 
and  elaborate  fraud ;  for  the  whole  theory  is  disproved  by 
a  letter  from  Mile.  Meunier  herself,  quoted  in  the  invalu- 
able "Dictamen"  of  the  Auditor-General.^ 

She  wrote  to  Ferrer  on  November  3,  1899 — 

I  used  to  cherish  an  admiring  reverence  for  the  clergy : 
it  is  dead.  I  felt  a  respectful  admiration  for  the  men  and 
the  processes  of  the  law:  it  is  dead.  I  esteemed  and 
admired  soldiers  :  that  feeling  is  dead.  Dead,  too,  is  my 
general  respect  for  all  authority  and  government.  .  .  .  But 
there  is  a  Supreme  Being,  a  God,  the  God  of  my  mother, 
the  God  whom  she  adored,  who  made  her  happy,  and  to 
whom  she  owed  her  sweet  and  tranquil  end. 

The  frame  of  mind  disclosed  in  this  letter  is  exactly 
that  which  inspired  the  will ;  and  it  is  too  common,  surely, 
to  be  called  even  paradoxical.  Ferrer  had  succeeded  in 
convincing  her  reason,  but  not  her  feelings.  She  pro- 
foundly respected  him,  and  so  far  sympathized  with  his 
practical  aims  as  to  feel  sure  that  he  would  put  her  legacy 
to  a  good  use ;  but  she  clung  at  once  to  the  conception  of 
God,  and  to  the  practices  consecrated  by  the  fuller  faith  in 
which    her   mother  had  died.     It  is  very  possible   that, 

'  Mr.  Hilaire  Belloc  {^Dublin  Review,  January,  1910,  p.  174)  says  that 
Ferrer,  "it  is  presumed,  embezzled  the  money  left  for  masses."  It  is  hard  to 
see  how  he  accomplished  this  particular  villainy,  seeing  that  it  could  not  be 
done  without  the  connivance  of  his  bitter  enemy  (and  an  ardent  Clerical)* 
Signor  Coppola. 

"  Process,  p.  305. 


A   FAMILY   SCENE  27 

having  travelled  in  Spain,  she  drew  a  clear  distinction 
between  her  ideal  Catholicism  and  the  Spanish  clericalism 
which  her  friend  designed  to  combat. 

One  last  trait  may  be  cited,  to  illustrate  the  relation 
between  Ferrer  and  his  benefactress.  The  anecdote  is  told 
by  Ferrer  himself,  and  is  so  far  open  to  suspicion.  The 
reader  must  form  his  own  judgment  as  to  whether  it 
bears  the  appearance  of  falsehood.  It  is  to  be  found 
in  a  letter  written  to  El  Pais,  and  reprinted  in  El 
Imparcialoi  October  14,  1909 — the  paper  which  contained 
the  report  of  the  writer's  execution.  After  mentioning 
several  proofs  of  Mile.  Meunier's  full  knowledge  of  his 
opinions,  Ferrer  proceeds  :  "  One  day  we  were  all  three  at 
Alella,  in  the  house  of  my  family.  As  they  were  all 
thoroughly  convinced  Catholics,  I  never  appeared  there 
without  getting  into  a  religious  discussion  ;  and  in  the 
course  of  such  a  discussion  I  remember  Mile.  Meunier 
turning  to  my  mother  and  saying  very  affectionately, 
*Do  not  let  it  trouble  you,  seiiora,  that  Francisco  has 
changed  his  ideas,  for  he  is  the  best  man  in  the  world.' 
My  nephew  Miguel  Salillas  y  Ferrer,  the  candidate  of  the 
Committee  of  Social  Defence^  in  the  last  Barcelona 
elections,  can  bear  witness  to  this  fact." 

'  An  ultra-Catholic  association,  which  was  largely  instrumental  in  hounding 
Ferrer  to  his  doom. 


IV 

THE  ESCUELA  MODERNA 

All  parties  admit  that  the  house  in  the  Rue  des  Petites 
Ecuries  was  left  to  Ferrer  absolutely,  and  without  any 
condition  whatsoever ;  ^  but  he  regarded  the  legacy  as  a 
trust.2  The  testatrix  died  on  April  2,  1901,  and  in  the 
following  September  the  now  famous  Escuela  Moderna 
was  opened  at  56  Calle  Bailen,  Barcelona. 

The  crying  need  for  education  in  Spain  is  contested 
only  by  those  who  think  ignorance  more  wholesome  than 
knowledge  for  the  average  human  soul,  or  whose  interest 
lies  in  affecting  this  opinion.  The  deficiencies  of  the 
actual  system  are  but  faintly  indicated  in  the  fact  that 
10,000,000  men  and  women,  out  of  a  total  population  of 
less  than  20,000,000,  cannot  read  or  write.  In  theory,  it  is 
true,  elementary  education  has  been  compulsory  since  1857, 

*  Here  is  the  whole  text  of  the  paragraph  making  the  bequest,  the  only 
allusion  to  Ferrer  in  the  will:— "Je  legue  a  Mens.  Francisco  Ferrer,  ne  a 
Alella,  province  de  Barcelone  (Espagne)  et  demeurant  actuellement  a.  Paris, 
43  rue  Richer,  la  maison  sise  a  Paris  rue  des  Petites  Ecuries,  No.  II." 

*  Signor  Coppola  tries  to  make  out  that  Mile.  Meunier  believed  that  Ferrer 
wanted  to  start  a  "Model  Infant  Asylum."  Of  this  he  adduces  no  shred  of 
proof,  and  a  letter  from  Mile.  Meunier  to  himself,  which  he  quotes,  in  no  way 
confirms  the  idea.  The  lady,  moreover,  did  not  foresee  her  death,  and  it  is 
abundantly  established  that  she  intended,  had  she  lived,  to  endow  Ferrer's 
enterprise.  How  could  he  possibly  have  hoped  to  deceive  a  living  benefactress 
as  to  the  nature  of  his  work  ?  The  whole  idea,  indeed,  is  absurd,  in  the  light 
of  the  letter  above  quoted. 


SPANISH   SCHOOLS  29 

and  free,  since  1901,  to  children  whose  parents  are  unable 
to  pay.  But  the  law,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  not  only  is  not, 
but  cannot  be,  enforced  ;  for  the  material  and  means  pro- 
vided for  carrying  it  into  effect  are  flagrantly  inadequate. 
From  a  recent  volume  of  statistics,  summarized  in  the 
Heraldo  de  Madrid  in  November,  1909,  it  appears  that 
"while  four  provinces  have  the  full  complement  of  ele- 
mentary schools  required  by  the  law,  the  supply  in  all  the 
remaining  45  is  deficient,  the  shortage  per  province  being 
from  772  schools  downwards,  and  the  total  deficiency 
amounting  to  9505  schools.  The  total  increase  of  school 
supply  between  1870  and  1908  is  2150  schools,  or  an 
average  of  about  56  schools  per  year.  At  this  rate  it 
would  take  over  150  years  to  catch  up  even  to  the  school 
provision  required  by  the  school  law  of  1857,  without 
allowing  for  any  increase  of  population."^  The  school- 
masters allotted  by  law  are,  roughly  speaking,  one  to  every 
thousand  of  the  population ;  and  of  course  the  actual  supply 
of  teachers  falls  much  below  this  modest  allowance.  The 
salaries  of  teachers  range  from  ;!^20  to  ;^I20  a  year, 
and  average  about  £dp,  with  a  free  house.  They  have 
also  the  perquisite  of  a  small  grant  for  providing  school- 
books  ;  and  as_  there  is  generally  no  one  to  see  that  the 
books  are  actually  provided,  the  result,  in  many  cases,  may 
be  imagined.  The  control  of  schools  in  villages  and  small 
towns  lies  with  the  Ayuntamiento  or  Town  Council,  which 
is  practically  dominated  by  the  Alcalde,  often  himself 
illiterate,  and  wholly  careless  of  the  interests  of  education. 
In   the   above-mentioned  report,  the  Ayuntamientos  are 

'  For  these  figures,  and  for  other  information  in  this  chapter,  I  am  indebted 
to  Mr.  Rafael  Shaw's  excellent  book  Spai7t  from  Within  (London,  Fisher 
Unwin,  1910),  I  may  also  refer  the  reader  to  El  Atraso  de  Espana,  by 
"John  Chamberlain,"  i,e,  iJr.  Cazalla  (Semperc  y  Compania,  Valencia  y 
Madrid). 


30  FRANCISCO  FERRER 

said  to  be  in  debt  to  teachers  for  arrears  of  salary  amount- 
ing to  ;^ 280,000.  Under  such  conditions,  what  sort  of 
efficiency  can  be  expected  ?  ^  But  still  more  amazing 
things  are  related  of  the  school  buildings,  not  by  irre- 
sponsible observers,  but  by  the  Minister  of  Education,  in 
a  report  addressed  to  the  Cortes:  "More  than  10,000 
schools  are  on  hired  premises,  and  many  of  these  are 
absolutely  destitute  of  hygienic  conditions.  There  are 
schools  mixed  up  with  hospitals,  with  cemeteries,  with 
slaughter-houses,  with  stables.^  One  school  forms  the 
entrance  to  a  cemetery,  and  the  corpses  are  placed  on  the 
master's  table  while  the  last  responses  are  being  said. 
There  is  a  school  into  which  the  children  cannot  enter 
until  the  animals  have  been  taken  out  and  sent  to  pasture. 
Some  are  so  small  that  as  soon  as  the  warm  weather  be- 
gins the  boys  faint  for  want  of  air  and  ventilation.^  One 
school  is  [surrounded  by  ?]  a  manure-heap  in  process  of 
fermentation,  and  one  of  the  local  authorities  has  said  that 
in  this  way  the  children  are  warmer  in  winter.  One  school 
in  Catalonia  adjoins  a  prison.  Another,  in  Andalusia,  is 
turned  into  an  enclosure  for  the  bulls  when  there  is  a  bull- 
fight in  the  town." 

Is  it  to  be  wondered  that  Ferrer  should  feel  that  a 
reform  of  education  must  be  the  first  step  towards  any 
permanent  amelioration  of  the  condition  of  the  Spanish 
people  ? 

It  is  a  mistake,  however,  to  suppose  that  Spanish 
education,  such  as  it  is,  rests  mainly  in  the  hands  of  the 

^  "He  is  hungrier  than  a  schoolmaster"  is,  says  Mr.  G.  H.  B.  Ward,  "a 
household  proverb  "  in  Spain. 

-  It  will  be  remembered  that  the  school  at  Alella,  in  Ferrer's  time,  was 

"  little  better  than  a  stable." 

'  At  Alella  an  inner  room,  with  no  window  or  means  of  ventilation,  opens 
off  the  main  schoolroom. 


CLERICAL   EDUCATION  31 

priests.  Clerical  teaching  is,  as  a  rule,  a  luxury  for  the 
rich.  The  Jesuits,  the  Padres  Escolapios,  and  other  orders, 
have  many  colleges,  some  of  them  large  and  splendid. 
From  the  heights  of  Tibidabo,  above  Barcelona,  one  looks 
down  on  two  such  institutions,  housed  in  sumptuous  build- 
ings that  would  do  no  discredit  to  Oxford  or  Cambridge. 
But  these  are  strictly  commercial  institutions,  established 
to  provide  the  upper  classes  with  safe  knowledge  and 
sound  theology.  In  the  towns  there  are  a  good  many 
private  schools  kept  by  nuns,  but  these  have  no  high 
reputation.  I  cannot  find  that  the  religious  orders  con- 
tribute much  to  education,  except  purely  as  a  matter  of 
business,  which  means,  of  course,  that  they  have  little 
share  in  the  teaching  of  the  poorer  classes.  The  instruc- 
tion given  in  the  official  schools,  however,  is  by  way  of 
being  religious.  "The  schoolmaster,  who  has  sworn  to 
protect  'the  faith,'"  says  Mr.  G.  H.  B.  Ward,  "is  rigidly 
supervised  by  the  parochial  priest  and  diocesan  inspector." 
Though  the  masters  are  themselves,  as  a  rule,  laymen, 
they  would  probably  never  dream  of  departing  from  the 
mechanical  routine  of  religious  exercises.  So-called 
religious  pictures,  of  the  poorest  and  tawdriest  description, 
are  the  invariable  decoration  of  the  schoolroom  walls. 
"The  children,"  says  Sr.  Cazalla,"pass  half  of  their  school 
hours  in  prayers  and  recitations  of  the  catechism  and  of 
*  sacred  history.'  Very  few  learn  to  write  ;  some  learn  to 
read,  by  reason  of  the  extreme  ease  with  which  Spanish 
lets  itself  be  learnt."  Which  means,  of  course,  that  Spanish 
is  rationally  spelt. 

Mr.  William  Heaford,  in  his  pamphlet,  VEcole  Moderne, 
has  shown  that  Ferrer  was  not  so  much  the  initiator  as 
the  systematizer  of  the  movement  for  democratic  educa- 
tion.    Ever  since  the  revolution  of  18G8  sporadic  efforts 


32  FRANCISCO  FERRER 

had  been  made  by  intelligent  members  of  the  Spanish 
working-class  to  secure  for  their  children  something  better 
than  the  miserable  instruction  given  in  the  official  schools. 
The    revolt    against    the    distressing    conditions    above 
described  began  to  make  headway  about  1885,  and  by 
the   end  of  last  century  there  were   many  "Republican 
schools"  in  various  towns  of  Spain.     What  was  new  in 
the  Escuela  Moderna  was,  in  the  first  place,  the  application 
of  (more  or  less)  modern  and  scientific  methods  of  peda- 
gogy, in  the  second  place,  the  inculcation   of  definitely 
rationalistic,  humanitarian,  anti-military  and  anti-patriotic 
doctrine.     Ferrer  did  not  at  all  take  the  view  that   his 
mission  was  simply  to  supply  his  countrymen  with  some- 
thing better  than  the  deplorable  education  furnished  by 
the  State.     He  conceived  his  system  to  be  an  improve- 
ment, not  only  on  Spanish  education  (which  would  have 
been   a   modest  claim)  but  on   education   as   commonly 
practised  in  the  world  at  large.     He  was  conscious  enough 
of   the    difficulty   of    getting    his    ideas   carried    out — of 
securing  teachers,  text-books,  and  school-material  suited 
to  his  views.     But  that  the  views  themselves  were  abso- 
lutely right,  not  for  Spain  alone,  but  for   humanity,  he 
had  no  doubt  at  all.     He  could  not,  as  he  said,  "  conceive 
life  without  propaganda  "  ;  and  propaganda  could  not  begin 
too   early.      Having  attained   absolute    clearness   on   all 
things  mundane,  and  convinced  himself  that  things  extra- 
mundane  either  did  not  exist  or  did  not  matter,  he  felt 
that  the  first  duty  of  the  educator  was  to  bring  this  gospel 
home  to  the  infant  mind,  before  any  shades  of  the  prison- 
house  of  supernaturalism  had  begun  to  gather  round  it. 
There  is  not  the  least  doubt  that  his  teaching  was  not 
merely  anti-clerical  but  anti-religious.     And  even  deeper 
than  the  rebellion  against  supernaturalism  lay  the  rebellion 


THE  ESCUELA  MODERNA  33 

against  class  domination  and  exploitation.  State-educa- 
tion was  in  Ferrer's  eyes  at  least  as  noxious  as  church- 
education. 

It  is  perfectly  true,  then — and  we  ought  not,  in  fairness, 
to  lose  sight  of  the  fact — that  the  Escuela  Moderna 
was  unmistakably  and  avowedly  a  nursery  of  rebellious 
citizens.  It  might  turn  out  "  good  Europeans  "  ;  but,  from 
the  point  of  view  of  any  believer  in  the  established  order 
of  things,  spiritual,  administrative,  or  economic,  its  whole 
effort  was  to  turn  out  bad  Spaniards.  Consequently  it 
was  only  natural  that  it  should  excite  the  utmost  horror 
in  clerical  and  conservative  minds.  Ferrer  was  from  first 
to  last  an  ardent  Revolutionist.  He  had  come  to  think 
that  Spain  was  not  yet  ripe  for  revolution  ;  but  the  whole 
object  of  his  work  was  to  correct  her  unripeness  by 
educating  Revolutionists.  His  enemies  averred,  and  no 
doubt  many  of  them  sincerely  believed,  that  his  revolu- 
tionism was  synonymous  with  violent  anarchism.  I  have 
already  indicated  my  disbelief  in  this  accusation,  and  I 
shall  have  later  to  go  into  the  question  in  more  detail. 
But  even  on  the  hither  side  of  violent  anarchism,  there 
was  much  in  Ferrer's  teaching  that,  in  any  country  in  the 
world,  could  not  but  strain  toleration  to  its  utmost  limit. 
We  can  hardly  conceive  what  would  happen  if  some  one 
were  to  set  up  in  England  an  aggressively  anti-religious, 
anti-monarchical,  anti-patriotic,  anti-militarist,  anti-capi- 
talist school,  which  should,  moreover,  beget  a  whole  crop 
of  imitative  offshoots  ;  but  it  is  quite  certain  that  there 
would  be  a  great  outcry,  and  a  demand  for  prosecution 
or  repression.  We  cannot,  then,  blame  clericalism  and 
militarism  for  combining  against  Ferrer,  and  seeking,  in 
mere  self-defence,  to  put  a  check  on  his  activities.  Had 
they  used  the  law  to  silence  him,  it  would  have  been  a 

D 


34  FRANCISCO   FERRER 

fair  act  of  war ;  but  the  accusation  we  are  now  investi- 
gating is  that  they  abused  the  law  to  kill  him. 

Ferrer's  initial  difficulty  was,  of  course,  to  find  teachers 
able  and  willing  to  put  his  ideas  into  practice.  The  first, 
or  one  of  the  first,  on  whom  he  laid  his  hand  was  a  certain 
Mme.  Clemence  Jacquinet,  who  is  the  subject  of  one  of 
the  favourite  and  most  frequently-repeated  legends  of  the 
prosecution.  The  Auditor-General,  in  his  "dictamen," 
gives  the  story  its  official  form.  Ferrer,  he  says,  had 
established  "  philosophico-mercantile  relations  "  with  Mme. 
Jacquinet,  who  had  been  in  charge  of  a  "  laic  school "  at 
Sakha,  in  Egypt — a  school  which  the  British  authorities 
had  closed  as  being  "  prejudicial,"  or,  as  we  should  say, 
detrimental.  Mme.  Jacquinet,  being  an  atheist,  anti- 
militarist,  and  anarchist,  was  a  woman  after  Ferrer's  own 
heart.  He  therefore  "snatched  her  from  suicide,"  and 
appointed  her  directress  of  the  Escuela  Moderna. 
"Thus,"  the  Auditor  concludes,  "Mme.  Jacquinet,  who 
was  weeded  out  of  the  soil  of  Egypt,  by  the  authorities 
of  liberal  England,  as  a  noxious  and  dangerous  germ, 
being  transplanted  by  Ferrer  to  Barcelona,  took  root, 
developed,  and  brought  forth  abundant  and  most  bitter 
fruits  in  our  calumniated  Spain."  This  eloquent  passage 
has  struck  the  reactionary  imagination,  and  the  fact  that 
"  liberal  England "  could  not  tolerate  Ferrer's  first 
directress  has  been  cited  in  triumph  by  all  the  apologists 
of  the  Maura  Government.  The  only  misfortune  is 
that  it  does  not  happen  to  be  a  fact  at  all.  I  was  so 
strongly  assured  of  this  in  Barcelona,  that,  though  the 
matter  was  of  small  importance,  I  thought  it  worth  while 
to  go  to  headquarters  and  get  at  the  actual  truth. 
Information  obtained  from  official  sources  in  Egypt  runs 
as  follows  (I  omit  some  details  which  have  no  reference  to 


THE   JACQUINET   MYTH  35 

Mme.  Jacquinet) :  "  About  ten  years  ago,  a  certain  Hassan 
Pasha  Tawfik  was  Inspector  of  the  Domains,  and  lived  at 
Sakha.  Clemence  Jacquinet  was  governess  to  his  children, 
and  also  used  to  give  lessons  in  a  school  on  the  Domains 
lands  at  Sakha.  The  school  contained  about  200  boys 
and  30  girls.  Mile.  Jacquinet  stayed  for  a  year  with  the 
Pasha  at  Sakha,  and  when  he  retired  on  a  pension  she 
came  with  him  to  Cairo.  .  .  .  Six  months  after  their 
departure,  the  school  closed  for  want  of  funds  and  order, 
for  the  Domains  had  ceased  their  contributions,  and  the 
Pasha  his  '  benevolences.'  There  is  no  ground  for  the 
statement  that  the  British  authorities  '  ordered  the  Pasha 
to  dismiss  her  and  close  the  school.'  It  was  rather  a  case 
of  'le  combat  cessa,  faute  de  combattants.'  The  pupils 
vanished  with  the  funds,  and  the  funds  vanished  with  the 
Pasha.  .  .  .  Mile.  Jacquinet  remained  with  the  Pasha  for 
two  years  in  Cairo,  and  then  left  for  Europe.  She  is  still 
in  correspondence  with  the  Pasha  and  his  son,  formerly 
an  employee  of  the  Museum,  and  now  at  the  Ministry 
for  Foreign  Affairs."  How  the  myth  of  Mme.  Jacquinet's 
expulsion  from  Egypt  came  into  existence  it  is  impossible 
to  say.  Probably  A  said  to  B,  "  She  must  have  been 
expelled,"  and  B  said  to  C,  "She  was."  But  the  fact 
that  the  Auditor-General,  professing  to  proceed  upon  docu- 
mentary evidence,  should  dwell  with  rhetorical  emphasis 
on  this  wholly  unfounded  statement,  shows  with  what 
uncritical  avidity  P'errer's  soldier-judges  seized  upon 
every  rumour  that  could  be  cited  to  his  prejudice,  and 
set  it  down  as  a  fact.^ 

'  The  Auditor-General  is  an  officer  whose  business  it  was  to  send  up  the 
sentence  of  the  Military  Tribunal  to  the  Captain-General  of  Catalonia, 
accompanied  by  a  report  recommending  that  it  should  be  confirmed  or 
annulled,  as  the  case  might  be.  A?  a  matter  of  fact,  the  report  is  simply  a 
third  indictment,  supplementinji  those  of  the  Prosecutor  and  the  Assessor,  and 


36  FRANCISCO   FERRER 

There  is  no  doubt,  however,  that  Mme.  Jacquinet's 
opinions,  when  she  took  up  her  position  at  the  Escuela 
Moderna,  were  pretty  much  what  the  Auditor  represents 
them  to  have  been.  She  was  an  atheist,  an  anti-militarist, 
and,  in  a  certain  sense,  an  anarchist.  "  In  a  certain 
sense  ? "  the  reader  may  say.  "  Then  in  what  sense  ?  " 
In  the  same  sense,  probably,  in  which  Ferrer  was  an 
anarchist.  It  is  time  that  we  should  look  more  closely 
into  this  question. 

In  the  manufacturing  regions  of  Spain,  the  majority 
of  the  working  class,  who  in  other  countries  would  call 
themselves  socialists,  reject  the  necessity  for  organization 
which  all  sane  socialists  admit,  and  prefer  to  call  them- 
selves anarchists.  The  reasons  for  this  are  not  quite  easy 
to  define,  but  may  probably  be  reduced  to  three.  In  the 
first  place,  the  workmen  as  a  class  are  too  ignorant  to 
form  any  clear  conception  of  the  complex  mechanism  of 
society,  and  its  absolute  dependence  on  some  sort  of 
directing  intelligence.  In  the  second  place,  the  Spanish 
character,  when  awakened  to  thought  at  all,  is  prone  to 
idealistic  dreaming.  In  the  third  place — and  this  is 
perhaps  the  strongest  reason — a  people  which  suffers 
daily  from  the  evils  of  highly-centralized  misgovernment, 
is  naturally  apt  to  confound  organization  with  a  vicious 
centralization,  and  to  fly  from  a  bad  system  to  the 
specious  alternative  of  no  system.  This  tendency  towards 
anarchism  renders  Spanish  socialism  comparatively  weak. 

But  are  we  to  conclude  that  the  majority  of  Spanish 
workmen  believe  in,  and  practice,  assassination,  bomb- 
throwing,  and  the  other  manifestations  of  "  anarchism  " 
as     it    is    popularly    understood     throughout     Europe  ? 

introducing  all  sorts  of  fresh  matter  never  submitted  to  the  Court  or  brought 
to  the  knowledge  of  the  accused  or  his  Defender. 


"ANARCHIST"  AND   "ACRATIST"    37 

Certainly  not.  The  distinction  between  anarchism  as  a 
political  theory  and  "  anarquismo  de  accion  "  or  terrorism, 
is  perfectly  clear  and  perfectly  recognized — except  by 
those  who,  hating  all  social  idealism,  make  it  a  point  of 
policy  to  represent  every  radical  as  an  actual  or  probable 
dynamiter.  The  anarchists  of  Spain  are  a  large  political 
party  ;  the  terrorists,  when  they  are  not  mere  individual 
fanatics,  or  scoundrels  suborned  by  reactionism,  are  at 
most  an  insignificant  group.  In  order  to  counteract  in 
some  degree  the  misapprehensions  arising  from  the 
ambiguity  of  the  word  "  anarchist,"  another  word, 
"acratist"  or  "opponent  of  power,"  is  often  applied  in 
Spain  to  the  theoretical  anarchist.  Now,  Ferrer  was 
unquestionably  an  "acratist."  He  was  thoroughly  opposed 
to  military  and  capitalistic  domination  and  exploitation.^ 
There  is  nothing  to  show  that  he  had  given  much  thought 
to  the  question  of  an  ideal  organization  of  society,  and  it 
is  very  probable  that,  like  so  many  of  the  class  from 
which  he  sprang,  he  instinctively  tended  to  underrate  the 
necessity  for  any  formal  organization  whatever.  In  other 
words,  he  was  an  idealistic  libertarian  and  equalitarian. 
That  he  was  at  any  time  a  terrorist,  there  is  no  proof 
whatever.  There  is  proof,  if  we  accept  in  its  entirety  a 
document  already  mentioned  and  to  be  examined  later, 
that  in  the  early  'nineties  he  was  prepared  to  organize 
what  was  designed  to  be  a  ruthlessly  sanguinary  revolt ; 
but  this  is  a  quite  different  thing  from  approving  the 
insensate  crimes  of  unorganized  terrorism.  And  whatever 
may  have  been  his  sentiments  in  1892,  we  have  the 
clearest   evidence  that  he  soon    after  underwent  a  total 

'  Compare  Prince  Kropotkin's  definition  of  anarchism  as  the  doctrine 
which  seeks  "to  abolish  the  oppressive  centralized  organization  of  the  State, 
whose  historical  mission  always  was  to  protect  and  to  maintain  the  exploitation 
of  man  by  man." 


38  FRANCISCO   FERRER 

change  of  heart  in  regard  to  political  action.  Some  of 
that  evidence  must  be  reserved  for  a  later  point ;  in  the 
meantime,  I  shall  merely  quote  his  "  Profession  of  Faith," 
written  while  he  was  awaiting  trial  for  complicity  in 
Morral's  attempt  on  the  life  of  the  King  and  Queen  of 
Spain — a  crime  which,  as  we  shall  see  in  the  next  chapter, 
his  enemies  conspicuously  failed  to  bring  home  to  him. 
His  declaration  appeared  in  the  Espana  Nueva  of  Novem- 
ber 14,  1906,  and  ran  as  follows : — 

I  detest  all  party  names,  from  that  of  anarchist  to  that 
of  Carlist,  for  they  are  all  obstacles  to  the  educational  work 
undertaken  by  the  Escuela  Moderna,  .  .  , 

I  have  always  denied  to  the  Court  that  I  am  an 
anarchist.  I  have  denied  it  because  here  an  anarchist  is 
thought  of  as  a  bloodthirsty  being,  an  enemy  of  humanity, 
and  a  partizan  of  evil  for  evil's  sake  ;  whereas  I  am  none 
of  these  things. 

On  the  contrary,  I  detest  the  shedding  of  blood,  I  work 
for  the  regeneration  of  humanity,  and  I  love  good  for  its 
own  sake. 

But  if  I  am  called  an  anarchist  on  the  ground  of  a 
published  phrase  of  mine  in  which  I  speak  of  ideas  of 
demolition  in  the  brain,  I  reply  that  here  is  the  collection 
of  the  books  and  "  Bulletins "  published  by  the  Escuela 
Moderna,  in  which  will  be  found,  in  effect,  ideas  of 
demolition ;  but,  mark  this  well,  ideas  of  demolition  in  the 
brain — that  is  to  say,  the  introduction  into  the  brain  of 
the  rational  and  scientific  spirit,  for  the  demolition  of  all 
prejudice.  Is  this  anarchism  ?  If  it  be,  I  declare  I  did 
not  know  it;  but  in  that  case  I  should  be  an  anarchist 
inasmuch  as  anarchism  would  seem  to  have  adopted  my 
ideas  of  education,  of  peace  and  of  love,  not  because  I 
have  adopted  any  of  its  methods  or  processes. 

Ferrer  appeals,  we  see,  to  the  publications  of  the 
Escuela  Moderna  to  show  whether  he  was   engaged   in 


FORTY   SCHOOL-BOOKS  39 

training  a  generation  of  "anarquistas  de  accion."  These 
publications  run  to  over  forty  small  red-covered  volumes, 
and  are  very  varied  in  their  contents.  Some  are  primers 
of  reading,  arithmetic,  geometry,  geography,  grammar, 
etc.  Some  are  outlines  of  history.  Some  are  story-books 
for  children.  Others  are  serious  treatises  like  Malvert's 
Origen  del  Cristianismo,  La  Stibstancia  Universal  by  Bloch 
and  Paraf-Javal,  and  Lluria's  Evolucion  Super-Organica^ 
furnished  with  a  preface  by  Dr.  Ramon  y  Cajal,  a  leader 
among  Spanish  men  of  science,  to  whom  one  of  the  Nobel 
Prizes  was  awarded  some  years  ago.^  I  do  not  profess  to 
have  been  all  through  the  forty  volumes,  but  I  have 
dipped  into  them  at  many  of  the  points  where  inflamma- 
tory teachings  seemed  most  likely  to  occur,  and  I  have 
found  nothing  that  can  reasonably  be  construed  as  incite- 
ment to  violence  or  immorality.  The  teaching  is  frankly 
"acratist,"  frankly  inspired  by  the  principle  "  ni  dieu,  ni 
maitre " ;  but  there  is  no  forecast,  no  suggestion,  of  any 
resort  to  arms,  and  much  less  any  recommendation  or 
palliation  of  terrorism.  I  do  not  even  find  that,  in 
passages  treating  of  religion,  there  is  any  unseemly 
scoffing  or  vulgar  scurrility. 

To  gain  a  clear  insight  into  the  spirit  of  Ferrer's 
teaching,  we  cannot  do  better  than  turn  to  his  "  Second 
Reading  Book,"  a  translation  by  Anselrao  Lorenzo  of 
The  Adventures  of  Nona,  by  Jean  Grave.  I  have  before 
me  a  copy  of  the  second  edition,  to  which  Ferrer  himself 
prefixes  a  note  to  the  effect  that,  in  three  years  of  practical 
use,  it  has  established  itself  as  the   children's   favourite 

'  This  work  may  be  read  in  English,  translated  by  Miss  Rachel  Challice. 

*  Most  of  the  books  are  translated  from  the  French.  Ferrer  himself 
made  no  contribution  to  the  series.  The  only  book  he  is  known  to  have 
written  is  a  method  of  Espagnol  pratique,  published  by  Garnicr  in  the  days 
when  he  was  teaching  in  Paris. 


40  FRANCISCO   FERKER 

book,  and  has  more  than  fulfilled  the  hopes  founded  on 
it.  The  pupils,  he  says,  read  it  and  make  their  own 
comments  upon  it,  under  the  direction  of  the  teachers. 
It  penetrates  to  their  intelligence  and  implants  in  them 
a  rooted  conviction  of  the  possibility  of  an  order  of  things 
in  which  peace  and  happiness  shall  reign  supreme,  very 
unlike  our  present  condition  of  social  injustice,  strife  and 
unhappiness. 

Using  the  old-established  mechanism  of  a  dream,  the 
author  sends  his  ten-year-old  hero,  Nono,  through  a  series 
of  laboriously  allegorical  experiences.  He  has  gone  to 
bed  rather  excited,  for  he  has  been  a  particularly  good 
boy  for  some  time,  and  his  father  has  promised  to  take 
him  out  next  day  and  let  him  choose  a  picture-book  for 
himself—"  not  an  expensive  one,  of  course,  for  the  parents 
of  Nono  were  working  people,  and  the  rich  people 
squander  money  on  frivolities  to  such  a  degree  that 
scarcely  anything  is  left  over  for  the  working  people  to 
buy  their  children  what  they  require."  His  excitement 
starts  him  off  on  a  dream  which,  after  beginning  with  the 
usual  encounters  with  talking  insects  and  so  forth,  soon 
develops  into  a  sort  of  politico-economical  Pilgrim's 
Progress, 

He  saves  a  bee  from  drowning  in  a  fountain,  and  the 
grateful  insect  leads  him  to  the  palace  of  its  mother,  a 
magnificent  lady  seated  on  the  softest  cushions,  and  served 
by  numerous  attendants  with  exquisite  foods,  and  beverages 
of  delicious  perfume.  Seeing  Nono  hesitate  to  approach 
her,  she  says  in  a  melodious  voice,  "Do  I  frighten  you, 
my  child?"  Now  Nono  has  often  heard  it  said,  in  his 
father's  house,  that  kings,  queens,  emperors  and  empresses 
are  flesh  and  blood  like  other  people,  differing  only  in 
the  cut  and  quality  of  their  clothes ;  but  at  school  he  has 


"ADVENTURES   OF   NOXO  "         41 

heard  so  much  of  their  power,  and  their  influence  over 
the  destinies  of  the  peoples,  that  his  imagination  cannot 
but  attribute  to  them  some  essential  superiority.  Having 
heard,  too,  that  the  bees  are  governed  by  a  queen,  he 
does  not  for  a  moment  doubt  that  he  is  in  the  presence 
of  that  august  personage. 

"  No,  your  majesty,"  he  makes  haste  to  answer. 

"  Who  has  told  you  that  I  am  a  queen  ? "  asks  the 
lady  smiling. 

"  I  can  see  it,  your  majesty,"  replies  the  child. 

"  In  what  way  can  you  see  it  ? " 

"  Because  I  can  see  the  other  bees  doing  you  service ; 
and  besides,  because  you  wear  a  crown." 

"  That  is  all  nonsense,"  says  the  lady,  laughing  frankly. 
"  You  take  my  hair  for  a  crown  ;  and  as  for  the  bees  that 
you  see  serving  me,  you  must  know  that  they  are  not 
slaves,  nor  ladies  of  the  bedchamber,  nor  servants,  but 
good  daughters  who  love  to  care  for  their  mother." 

Nono  excuses  himself  by  saying  that  he  has  been 
taught  at  school  that  the  bees  are  governed  by  a 
queen. 

"My  child,"  says  the  lady,  resuming  her  habitual 
gravity,  though  still  with  a  kindly  smile,  "Your  teacher 
is  an  ignoramus,  who  talks  of  what  he  knows  nothing 
about.  Studying  the  life  of  our  hives,  men  have  judged 
our  customs  by  their  own.  They  think  of  me  as  a 
privileged  being,  as  useless  as  a  king,  to  whom  the  others 
owe  obedience,  and  whose  will  regulates  the  work  of  the 
hives.  The  partizans  of  authority  have  found  in  this 
error  an  argument  in  their  own  favour,  and  go  on  teaching 
in  schools  that  the  bees  are  governed  by  a  queen." 

She  then  proceeds  to  expound  the  division  of  labour 
as  practised  in  the  bee  community,  but  draws  a  veil,  if  I 


42  FRANCISCO   FERRER 

am  not  mistaken,  over  some  of  its  incidents.  The  word 
"  drone  "  nowhere  occurs  in  her  exposition. 

After  leaving  the  palace  of  the  mother-bee,  Nono  finds 
himself  face  to  face  with  a  tall  and  beautiful  woman 
beneath  whose  amiable  smile  he  discerns  a  strong  will 
and  potent  energy.  She  is  none  other  than  the  fairy 
Solidaria,  who  conducts  .him  to  the  delightful  region  of 
Autonomy,  entirely  peopled  by  good  and  happy  children — 
Mab,  Hans,  Pat,  Sandy,  Riri,  Toto,  Biquette,  Delia,  etc. 
Here,  too,  we  meet  the  beneficent  genius  of  Labor,  and 
his  sister  Liberta,  the  fairy  Electricia,  and  one  or  two 
other  allegorical  characters.  Nono's  life  in  the  land  of 
Autonomy  occupies  several  chapters,  very  much  in  the 
style  of  the  ordinary  moral  story-book. 

But  one  day,  when  the  children  are  out  in  the  woods, 
under  the  care  of  Professor  Botanico,  Nono,  in  chasing  a 
butterfly,  gets  separated  from  his  companions,  and  runs 
against  a  strange  personage — "  a  pot-bellied,  flat-nosed 
gentleman,  of  vulgar  aspect ;  richly  dressed  ;  an  enormous 
gold  chain  dangling  in  front  of  his  corporation  ;  his  shirt- 
front  gleaming  with  diamonds  ;  a  great  carbuncle  in  the 
knot  of  his  cravat,  his  fingers  covered  with  rings  ;  and 
leaning  on  a  gold  staff."  Though  Nono  does  not  know  it, 
this  personage  is  in  reality  Monadio,  .King  of  the  neigh- 
bouring and  hostile  realm  of  Argirocracy.  They  get  into 
conversation,  and  the  stranger  tactlessly  remarks,  "  I 
suppose  you  are  out  for  a  ramble  with  your  masters  ?  " 

"We  have  no  masters,"  answers  Nono  energetically. 
"  They  are  our  friends  ;  they  work,  play  and  amuse  them- 
selves with  us.  They  teach  us  what  they  know  ;  but  they 
never  oblige  us  to  do  what  we  do  not  want  to  do." 

The  stranger  speaks  with  a  cynical  scepticism  of  the 
joys  of  Autonomy,  and,  through  a  pair  of  magic  field- 


AUTONOMY   AND   ARGIROCRACY     43 

glasses,  displays  to  Nono  the  splendours  of  Argirocracy. 
Though  somewhat  impressed  by  what  he  sees,  Nono 
remains  loyal  to  Solidaria,  Botanico  and  the  rest ;  and 
Monadio  has  at  last  to  carry  him  off  by  force,  after  a  series 
of  exciting  adventures. 

In  Argirocracy,  Nono  finds  himself  deserted  and 
miserable,  among  a  miserable  population.  In  this  king- 
dom of  capitalism  there  are  three  classes  of  people  : 
"  those  who  enjoy  all  pleasures  and  do  nothing ;  those 
who  work  and  enjoy  no  pleasure  ;  and  those  who,  in 
the  interests  of  the  former  class,  force  the  latter  class  to 
work." 

Whatever  may  be  the  number  of  the  do-nothings,  it  is 
evident  that  they  could  not  long  have  secured  the  obedience 
of  those  who  have  to  work  continually  in  the  midst  of 
privations,  had  it  not  been  for  the  astuteness  of  Monadio 
and  his  ministers. 

This  astuteness  lay  in  persuading  people  that  if  there 
were  no  one  to  put  in  prison  those  who  refuse  to  do  what 
they  dislike  doing,  it  would  be  impossible  to  arrange  the 
business  life  and  to  be  free — that  people  would  dispute 
and  wrangle,  and  finally  die  of  hunger. 

Further,  it  was  contended  that  there  must  be  a  class 
of  people  who  live  in  continual  festivity,  and  squander 
without  ceasing,  in  order  that  those  who  are  obliged  to 
produce  may  have  plenty  of  work,  and  a  little  to  eat. 

All  this  had  been  inculcated  on  the  Argirocracians, 
from  father  to  son,  for  thousands  of  years,  and  they,  poor 
people,  were  absolutely  persuaded  that  it  was  impossible 
to  live  in  any  other  way. 

After  many  painful  experiences,  Nono  reaches  Monadia, 
the  capital  of  this  realm.  Here  he  observes  a  curious 
phenomenon.  He  sees  a  great  many  men  in  various 
uniforms — soldiers,    policemen,   custom-house   and   octroi 


44  FRANCISCO  FERRER 

officers — and  the  odd  thing  is  that  they  all  appear  to  have 
a  double  countenance,  looking  now  like  men,  and  again 
like  beasts  or  birds  of  prey,  according  to  the  angle  from 
which  you  regard  them.  He  soon  learns  the  reason  of 
this  ambiguous  physiognomy  : — 

As  to  the  soldiers,  they  were  chosen  among  the  sons 
of  workmen  and  peasants,  and,  as  soon  as  they  had  donned 
their  uniform,  their  faces  began  to  change  into  the  likeness 
of  a  mastiff. 

Those  who  could  not  acquire  this  aspect  were  sent  far 
away,  to  unknown  countries,  whence  they  seldom  returned. 
Others  very  soon  died,  because  the  crisis  of  transformation 
was  too  much  for  them. 

Yet  this  was  only  the  first  step ;  those  who  survived 
it  generally  passed  with  ease  to  a  further  change,  and 
assumed  the  appearance  of  tigers,  which  they  preserved  to 
their  dying  day. 

There  were,  however,  in  the  army  some  who  never 
arrived  at  that  physiognomy,  and  could  not  pass  beyond 
the  appearance  of  greyhounds  or  retrievers.  Of  these, 
that  they  might  not  lack  some  evil  employment,  they  made 
revenue  officers  or  detectives.  Some  of  these  wore  no 
uniform,  their  duty  being  to  mix  with  the  people  in  the 
streets,  and  particularly  with  the  workmen  in  their  work- 
shops and  taverns,  and  to  report  everything  they  heard  to 
the  ministers  of  Monadio.  These  wore  a  countenance 
somewhere  between  a  retriever  and  a  ferret,  and  spread 
around  them  a  pestiferous  odour,  which  they  tried,  by  dint 
of  precautions,  to  disguise  as  much  as  possible. 

Owing  to  the  force  of  habit,  however,  all  these  differ- 
ences of  aspect  soon  became  almost  imperceptible  to  the 
inhabitants  of  the  country.  Even  Nono,  after  a  time,  was 
unable  to  discern  them. 

Among  the  masters,  these  particularities  were  more 
strongly  emphasized,  and  always  ended  in  a  resemblance 
to  wolves,  eagles,  crows,  panthers,  serpents,  etc. 


ZOOLOGICAL   SATIRE  45 

Those  who  assumed  the  aspect  of  wolves,  tigers,  and 
panthers  were  made  officers  in  the  army  of  Monadia.  The 
crows,  hyenas,  and  jackals  entered  the  magistracy,  whose 
duty  it  was  to  put  out  of  the  way  the  enemies  of  King 
Monadio,  and  to  lock  up  in  prisons  or  similar  establish- 
ments those  whom  age  or  infirmity  prevented  from  working, 
and  whose  presence  in  public  places  would  have  imperilled 
the  tranquillity  of  those  who  do  nothing. 

There  were  some  who  took  the  form  of  turkeys  and 
peacocks :  these  were  the  courtiers  of  King  Monadio. 
Some  who  wore  the  appearance  of  guinea-pigs,  made  no 
pretence  of  working  at  all,  but  confined  themselves  to 
eating,  drinking,  sleeping,  and  loafing  around. 

Finally,  the  foremen  and  overseers,  whom  the  masters 
had  raised  from  the  ranks  to  posts  of  authority  over  their 
fellow-workers,  assumed  the  appearance  of  wolves  and 
mastiffs. 

Nono  at  last  apprentices  himself  to  a  tailor,  who  of 
course  "  sweats "  him.  Here  he  lives  for  some  time  in 
peace  ;  but  unfortunately  he  gets  into  the  habit  of  vaunt- 
ing to  his  companions  the  blissful  life  of  Autonomy,  and 
when  this  comes  to  the  ears  of  the  authorities  they  have 
him  arrested  on  a  charge  of  preaching  subversive  doctrines 
and  sowing  dissensions  in  the  state.  The  picture  of  Nono 
in  prison,  living  on  mouldy  black  bread  and  water,  must 
often  have  recurred  to  Ferrer  while  awaiting  his  trial  in 
the  Carcel  Celular  of  Barcelona  ;  but  Ferrer,  as  we  shall 
see,  had  worse  things  to  endure  than  black  bread  and 
water.  In  many  other  respects  he  must  have  been 
reminded  of  The  Adventures  of  Nono,  in  the  course  of  his 
own  adventures  with  the  justice  of  his  country. 

Next  day,  Nono  is  brought  before  two  officials  of  the 
law.  One  has  the  head  of  a  jackal,  and  "  exhales  a  repug- 
nant odour."     This  is  the  examining  magistrate,  charged 


46  FRANCISCO   FERRER 

with  the  "  instruction  "  of  his  case.  The  other  functionary 
has  before  him  paper,  ink,  and  pens,  and  is  evidently  the 
Prosecutor.     He  reminds  Nono  of  a  beetle. 

The  jackal,  in  a  voice  of  hypocritical  solemnity,  asks 
him  if  he  knows  what  is  the  charge  against  him  ? 

"  No,  sir,"  replies  Nono.  "  I  hope  that  you  will  tell 
me." 

"  Do  not  pretend  ignorance.  You  know  very  well  that 
you  have  been  guilty  of  inciting  to  disobedience  to  law, 
contempt  for  our  august  monarch,  and  rebellion  against 
our  sacred  institutions." 

Nono  is  silent  for  a  moment,  wondering  whether  he 
can  be  an  abandoned  criminal  without  knowing  it. 

"  You  see,"  continues  the  jackal,  "  you  dare  not  answer- 
Come,  my  child — a  good  impulse !  Confess,  and  it  will 
be  put  down  to  your  credit,"  he  adds,  "  with  mellifluous 
hypocrisy." 

"  Your  august  monarch  is  a  rascal,"  Nono  replies,  "  who 
deceived  me  abominably  in  order  to  carry  me  off  from 
Autonomy.  I  have  always  wanted  to  leave  this  accursed 
country  and  return  to  my  dear  Solidaria !  " 

The  jackal  raises  his  two  front  paws  to  heaven,  and 
cries  "  Guards  !  keep  this  criminal  in  close  custody !  Lead 
him  back  to  his  dungeon  ! " 

For  a  long  time  Nono  sees  no  one,  except  a  man  in 
black,  with  white  bands,  who  one  day  presents  himself 
under  pretext  of  talking  of  what  will  happen  to  Nono 
after  his  death.  The  physiognomy  of  this  personage  is 
the  most  repugnant  of  all,  for,  along  with  several  traits 
common  to  all  myrmidons  of  justice,  he  combines  some- 
thing of  the  appearance  of  a  cockroach.  Nono  begs  his 
visitor  to  leave  him  in  peace. 

At  last  he  is  brought  to  trial  in  a  court  crowded  with 


NONO  AWAKENS  47 

Monadians  of  all  classes.  "  The  variety  of  types  was  so 
great  that  for  a  moment  Nono  thought  he  must  be  in  the 
Zoological  Gardens.  One  half  of  the  hall  was  filled  with 
people  dressed  in  black  ;  they  all  had  the  faces  of  magpies 
and  parrots.  The  rest  of  the  court,  separated  by  a  railing, 
was  occupied  by  people  of  the  miserable  classes  ;  and 
there  the  likeness  to  oxen,  sheep,  and  asses  predomi- 
nated. 

"  When  Nono  was  placed  at  the  bar,  a  sort  of  magpie 
called  out  in  a  cracked  voice :  '  The  Court ! '  and  there 
appeared  on  the  platform  four  gentlemen,  three  in  black 
robes  and  one  in  red,  with  square  caps  and  broad  galloons 
of  gold.  The  red  one,  like  a  vulture,  took  his  seat  on  the 
tribune  near  the  notables  ;  and  the  three  black  ones,  who 
resembled  a  red  owl,  a  barn  owl,  and  an  eaglet,  seated 
themselves  behind  a  sort  of  counter."  ^ 

Here  we  have  done — certainly  none  too  soon — with 
this  simple  method  of  zoological  satire.  The  trial  of  Nono 
is  conducted  in  the  same  style  as  the  preliminary  investi- 
gation, and  he  is  sentenced  to  imprisonment  for  life.  Then 
two  of  his  companions,  Hans  and  Mab,  set  out  from 
Autonomy  to  search  for  him,  provided  with  an  ever-filled 
purse,  and  accompanied  by  a  dancing  pig  and  a  swallow, 
who  is,  so  to  speak,  the  intelligence-department  of  the 
expedition.  After  many  sad  experiences  of  the  evils  of 
life  in  Argirocracy,  they  make  their  way  into  Nono's 
prison,  and  are  on  the  point  of  rescuing  him,  when — Nono 
wakes  up  in  his  bed  at  home  in  Paris.  When  he  recounts 
his  dream  to  his  parents,  the  father  sagely  observes  that 

*  This  passage  was  quoted,  with  not  unnatural  reprobation,  by  Sr.  Ugarte, 
Prosecutor  of  the  Supreme  Court,  in  his  report  to  the  Government  on  the 
Barcelona  Riots,  It  was  Sr.  Ugarte  who  first  gave  official  form  to  tlie  theory 
of  Ferrer's  yuilt. 


48  FRANCISCO   FERRER 

there  are  many  things  in  it  which  seem  beyond  the  under- 
standing of  a  child  of  his  age. 

I  have  gone  at  length  into  The  Adventures  of  Nono, 
because  we  have  Ferrer's  own  word  for  its  popularity  in 
the  school,  and  for  his  entire  approval  of  the  doctrine  it 
conveys.    Evidently,  then,  it  may  be  taken  as  fairly  repre- 
senting the  moral  and  political  tendencies  which  prevailed 
in  the  Escuela  Moderna.     To  a  conservative  mind,  these 
tendencies  are  naturally  abhorrent ;    and   even  a  liberal 
mind  may  well  doubt  the  wisdom  of  filling  a  child's  brain 
with  such  ideas.     But  this  is  the  criticism  of  the  citizen  of 
Argirocracy,  the  very  person  against  whom  the  author's 
satire  is  mainly  directed,  and  who  naturally  does  not  like 
it.     If  we  start  from  the  axiom  that  it  is  wrong  to  "  stir  up 
class  against  class,"  such  a  book   as   The  Adventures  of 
Nono  is  manifestly  condemnable.     But   this   comfortable 
axiom  of  the  comfortable  classes  cannot  have  any  validity 
for  those  who  ardently  believe  that  one  class  inflicts,  while 
another  suffers,  cruel  and  crying  injustice,  to  the  great 
detriment  of  both  classes.     If  the  man  who  holds  and  dis- 
seminates this  opinion  is  to  be  treated  as  a  criminal,  there 
is  an  end  to  freedom  of  speech,  an  end  to  toleration.     Nor 
can  it  plausibly  be  maintained  that  the  law  should  step  in 
and  say,  "  You  may  preach  this  doctrine  to  men,  but  you 
must  not  teach  it  to  children."     The  distinction  between 
justice  and  injustice  is  perhaps  the  first  moral  distinction 
which  a  child  can  and  does  grasp,  and  it  would  be  ridicu- 
lous to  pretend  that  it  lies  outside  the  proper  sphere  of 
education.     Our  instinctive  plea,  that  it  is  not  fair  to  pre- 
judice the  mind  of  a  child  on  subjects  which  he  cannot 
fully  understand,  is  nothing  but  a  fallacy  of  bourgeois  self- 
defence.     We   are   ready  enough   to  teach   children  that 
they  must  order  themselves  lowly  and  reverently  to  all 


A  DOUBTFUL   PASSAGE  49 

their  betters,  and  do  their  duty  in  that  state  of  life  unto 
which  it  has  pleased  God  to  call  them, — why,  then,  should 
those  who  hold  the  opposite  view  abstain  from  inculcating 
it  on  the  receptive  mind  of  childhood  ?  Why  should  we, 
of  the  privileged  classes,  claim  an  exclusive  right  to  indoc- 
trinate children  with  our  views  of  social  order?  The 
claim  is  not  tenable  in  reason  for  a  single  moment. 

But  if  the  teacher  urges  and  incites  to  violent  methods 
of  vindicating  his  ideals  of  social  justice,  the  case  is  altered. 
Every  nation  asserts  the  right  to  prohibit  and  put  down 
any  proceedings  directly  calculated  to  lead  to  what  in 
English  law  is  termed  a  breach  of  the  peace.  Was  this 
the  tendency  of  Ferrer's  teaching  ?  Did  it  incite  to  acts 
of  violence  and  illegality  ?  There  is  in  The  Adventures  of 
Nono  one  doubtful  passage,  where  Hans  and  Mab  treat 
sympathetically,  and  aid  in  his  flight,  a  starving  youth  who 
has  struck  a  rich  man  who  refused  with  insult  to  give  him 
alms.  The  incident  occupies  only  half  a  page,  and  is  in 
no  way  emphasized ;  but  it  undeniably  tends  to  palliate 
an  assault  prompted  by  hunger  and  despair.  Otherwise 
there  is  not  the  slightest  suggestion  of  violent  revolt,  much 
less  of  the  methods  usually  associated  with  "  anarchism." 
The  spirit  of  the  book  is  purely,  and  even  sentimentally, 
humanitarian. 

Another  book  in  which  the  tendencies  of  the  Escuela 
Moderna  may  be  clearly  read  is  the  Covipetidium  of  Uni- 
versal History,  by  Clcmence  Jacquinet,  whose  name  is 
already  known  to  us.  It  was  the  first  of  Ferrer's  school- 
books,  and  opens  with  this  prefatory  note — 

La  Escuela  Moderna 

inaugurates  the  series  of  its  publications  in  paying  homage 
to  those  who  have  suffered  and  suffer  in  the  evolution  and 

E 


50  FRANCISCO   FERRER 

progress  of  humanity,  while  at  the  same  time  affirming  its 
ideal  of  justice  and  of  peace. 

The  Founder.  The  Directress. 

F.  Ferrer  Guardia.  Cl,  Jacquinet. 

The  book  consists  of  three  small  volumes,  and  is 
divided  into  five  parts — 

I.  From  Prehistoric  Times  to  the  Roman  Empire. 
II.  The  Middle  Ages. 

III.  Modern  Times. 

IV.  The  French  Revolution  and  its  Consequences. 
V.  From  Napoleon  to  Our  Own  Days. 

Such  a  work  could  not  but  be  sketchy  and  superficial. 
Mme.  Jacquinet,  indeed,  is  not  greatly  concerned  to  crowd 
her  pages  with  facts,  and  devotes  the  bulk  of  her  space  to 
her  own  interpretation  of  the  great  movements  of  history. 
Her  passages  on  Christianity  and  on  patriotism  are 
perhaps  as  characteristic  as  anything  in  her  book.  After 
tracing  the  doctrines  and  practices  of  Christianity  to  three 
main  sources,  Stoicism,  Neo-Platonism,  and  Buddhism, 
she  sums  up  as  follows : — 

Very  far  from  being  a  civilizing  force,  Christianity  has 
always,  throughout  the  course  of  history,  placed  obstacles 
in  the  path  of  progress.  We  shall  find  in  it  the  negation 
of  science,  which  disproves  its  dogmas ;  the  firmest  sup- 
port of  absolutism,  and  of  the  inequality  of  the  social 
classes ;  the  oppressor  of  the  human  conscience  in  the 
clamps  of  its  false  morality ;  the  odious  standard  in  whose 
shadow  all  crimes  have  been  committed  ;  the  vampire 
ever  thirsting  for  blood,  to  whom  have  been  sacrificed 
millions  of  victims. 

Now  it  is  the  turn  of  patriotism — 
The  idea  of  the  fatherland  is  the  well-spring  of  all  hatred 


ANTI-PATRIOTISM  51 

and  all  injustice.  Born  of  war,  it  prevents  the  peoples 
from  knowing  and  appreciating  each  other,  and  from 
mingling  in  fraternal  solidarity.  ...  In  regard  to  history, 
children  are  taught  nothing  but  the  wars  which  their 
country  has  waged  against  others,  every  effort  being  made 
to  underestimate  the  losses  suffered  by  their  own  side  and 
exaggerate  the  damage  done  to  the  other  side.  Hatred 
of  the  foreigner  is  fostered  throughout  life  by  all  possible 
means,  because  it  is  a  great  resource  to  the  governing 
classes,  permitting  them  to  maintain  armies  which  are 
always  ready  for  anything. 

Rapacity  and  hatred  are  allied,  in  the  patriotic  idea, 
with  a  vanity  which  would  form  the  comic  side  of  the 
matter  if  it  were  not  painful  as  an  exhibition  of  human 
blindness.  .  .  . 

We  shall  be  told  that  the  idea  of  patriotism  has  in- 
spired sublime  heroisms ;  to  which  we  reply  that  these 
heroisms  have  in  our  own  judgment  been  developed  in 
spite  of  the  patriotic  sentiment ;  that  their  true  cause  was 
the  love  of  our  fellow-men,  and  that  on  the  day  when  we 
shall  no  longer  see  ourselves  confined  within  narrow  and 
irrational  barriers,  humanity  will  have  infinitely  greater 
power  to  inspire  abnegation. 

In  her  review  of  recent  times,  Mme.  Jacquinet  takes  up 
an  uncompromisingly  "  acratist "  attitude.  She  will  have 
nothing  to  do  with  constitutionalism  or  parliamentary 
government.  "  To  delegate  your  power  is  to  lose  it,"  she 
quotes  from  Elisce  Reclus  ;  and  again,  "To  vote  is  to 
debase  yourself" — a  saying  which  she  holds  to  be  "as 
just  as  it  is  beautiful."  How  society  is  to  be  organized, 
or  rather  how  it  is  to  get  on  without  organization,  she  does 
not  explain. 

On  the  other  hand,  we  occasionally  find  Ferrer  toning 
down,  for  juvenile  consumption,  the  acratism  of  his  French 
originals.     This  is  very  noticeable  in  his  Cat'tilla  or  First 


52  FRANCISCO   FERRER 

Reading  Book,  which,  beginning  with  the  alphabet  and 
sillabary,  ends  with  a  condensed  translation  of  a  pamphlet 
by  Paraf-Javal,  entitled  VHjimanite:  Interview  de  son 
Oncle  par  ma  Niece.  In  Ferrer's  version  of  this  materialist 
catechism,  three  things  strike  us  :  first,  the  niece  becomes 
a  nephew;  second,  a  paragraph  on  the  reproductive 
function  is  omitted  ;  third,  a  long  final  section  is  wholly 
suppressed,  in  which  the  Uncle  develops  his  conception  of 
a  materialist  morality,  ending  "Anarchy  is  the  doctrine 
of  the  future.  Even  at  present,  among  anarchists,  we 
ought  to  practise  it."  There  is  nothing  very  startling  in 
the  suppressed  section — nothing,  probably,  of  which  Ferrer 
disapproved.  But  there  are  sentiments  such  as  this : — 
"The  legislators  of  all  countries  are  a  band  of  megalo- 
maniacs, victims  of  authoritary  mania,  for  the  most  part 
tobacco-poisoned  and  alcoholized,  of  an  unimaginable  un- 
scrupulousness  and  ignorance" — which  it  is  pleasant  to 
find  that  Ferrer  did  not  hold  to  be  precisely  milk  for 
babes. 

More  important,  however,  than  the  text-books,  as 
evidence  of  the  spirit  and  methods  of  the  Escuela 
Moderna,  is  the  monthly  "  Boletin  "  which  it  issued.  Of 
the  two  series  or  "epochs  "  of  this  publication,  sixty-two 
numbers  in  all  appeared  ;  and  I  have  gone  pretty  care- 
fully through  all  of  them  except  the  first  ten,  which  were 
inaccessible  to  me.  The  "  Boletin  "  is,  in  fact,  a  journal  of 
education,  addressed,  not  to  children,  but  to  parents,  and 
more  especially  to  teachers.  It  consists  very  largely  of 
translations  from  Paul  Robin,  Elis^e  Reclus,  Flammarion, 
Anatole  France,  Gustave  Herve,  Herbert  Spencer,  Haeckel, 
Kropotkin,  Gorki,  Tolstoy,  and  French,  Belgian,  Italian, 
and  American  specialists  in  education  and  hygiene.  There 
are,  however,  a  few  declarations,  either  signed  by  Ferrer 


OFFICIAL   EDUCATION  53 

himself,  or  manifestly  proceeding  from  him.  The  most 
important,  perhaps,  was  published  in  the  first  number  of 
the  second  series,  May,  1908.  The  ordinary  governmental 
or  government-sanctioned  schools  of  the  day,  he  says 
(referring  not  to  Spain  alone),  are  mere  instruments  of 
capitalist  and  militarist  reaction — 

They  have  only  one  clear  idea  and  one  desire :  that 
the  children  shall  learn  to  obey,  to  believe,  and  to  think 
according  to  the  social  dogmas  which  rule  us.  .  .  .  The 
object  is  always  to  impose  on  the  child  ready-made 
thoughts  ;  to  debar  him  from  all  thinking  which  does  not 
tend  to  the  conservation  of  existing  institutions :  to  make 
of  him,  in  short,  a  personage  strictly  adapted  to  the  social 
mechanism.  .  .  .  The  whole  value  of  education  lies  in 
respect  for  the  physical,  intellectual,  and  moral  will  of  the 
child.  .  .  .  But  nothing  is  more  difficult  than  this  respect. 
The  educator  as  we  know  him  always  imposes,  obliges, 
forces ;  whereas  the  true  educator  is  he  who  can  defend 
the  child  even  against  his  (the  educator's)  own  ideas  and 
volitions,  appealing  in  a  higher  degree  to  the  energies  of 
the  child  himself.  .  .  . 

It  need  not  be  said  that  co-education  was  a  fundamental 
principle  of  the  school ;  or  that  teachers  "had  to  renounce 
all  punishment,  material  or  moral,"  except  such  as  might 
lie  in  the  necessary  consequences  of  the  fault  itself.  Re- 
wards no  less  than  punishments  were  tabooed,  and  the 
incentive  of  competition  so  far  as  possible  eliminated. 
The  merits  of  "integral  education"  are  frequently  insisted 
on  :  a  phrase  which  I  take  to  be  used  in  contradistinction 
to  "primary,"  "secondary,"  and  "higher"  education,  and 
to  imply  a  sort  of  normal  curriculum,  not  founded  on  any 
class  distinctions,  but  equally  fitted  for  every  citizen. 

It  is  impossible  not  to  smile  at  Ferrer's  assumption 
that  dogmatism  is  foreign  to  the  spirit  and  method  of  the 


54  FRANCISCO   FERRER 

Escuela  Moderna.  He  himself  provides  the  best  commen- 
tary on  this  illusion  by  printing  frequent  extracts  from 
the  essays  of  pupils.  The  little  people — their  ages  are 
generally  stated,  and  range  from  9  to  13 — simply  repeat, 
with  a  touching  gravity  and  conviction,  the  collectivist 
and  humanitarian  dogmas  which  have  been  instilled  into 
them.  Of  independent  thought,  or  criticism  of  the  official 
notions,  there  is  never  a  trace.  It  would  be  absurd,  of 
course,  to  look  for  anything  of  the  kind :  I  merely  point 
out  that  if  the  masters  made  any  attempt  to  "  defend  "  the 
pupils  against  the  influence  of  authority  and  dogma,  they 
were  absolutely  unsuccessful.  Many  of  the  ideas  enunci- 
ated by  these  babes  and  sucklings  are,  to  me,  acceptable 
enough  ;  yet  I  cannot  but  feel  that  a  generation  thus 
indoctrinated  would  be  apt  to  abound,  if  not  in  fanatics,  at 
least  in  prigs. 

It  seems  to  have  been  a  custom  to  read  out  these 
"  sententise  pueriles "  at  the  little  festivity — the  prize- 
giving  without  prizes — which  brought  the  school  year  to  a 
close.  I  quote  a  few  specimens  which  fairly  represent  the 
spirit  of  the  whole.  Any  one  specimen,  indeed,  might 
fairly  represent  all  the  others ;  for  they  are  as  like  as 
bricks  in  a  wall — 

Kissing  the  Priest's  Hand. 

There  are  many  children  with  whom  this  is  a  habit 
though  they  know  that  priests  are  men  like  any  one  else, 
and  that  they  preach  what  they  do  not  believe.  More- 
over, they  invite  religious  persons  to  drop  coins  into  a  box 
for  the  souls  of  the  dead,  and  as  there  are  no  souls  to 
receive  them,  it  follows  that  the  real  object  is  that  the 
priests  may  enjoy  themselves  at  the  expense  of  the 
ignorant. 


THE   YOUNG   IDEA  55 


Education. 

Education  may  be  very  good  or  very  bad,  according  to 
what  is  taught.  It  is  good  when  rational  things  are 
taught,  such  as  science.  It  is  bad  when  metaphysical 
things  are  taught,  such  as  religion. 

Los  TOROS. 

In  the  Roman  times,  human  slaves  fought  with  lions 
and  tigers.  On  other  occasions  men  fought  with  each 
other,  and  the  brutalized  public  compelled  the  victor  to 
kill  the  vanquished.  To-day  we  no  longer  do  that,  but  we 
still  have  bull-fights,  in  which  men  first  enrage  and  then 
kill  the  poor  animals.  What  sort  of  a  public  is  it  which 
enjoys  this  spectacle  of  torture  and  death  ! 

The  Government  and  the  Soldiers. 

The  Government  commands  and  authorizes  what  is 
not  just.  For  example  :  it  forces  into  the  army  and  sends 
to  the  war  those  who  have  not  money  to  pay  for  their 
release.  If  the  soldiers  whom  they  command  to  kill  men 
and  burn  villages  remembered  that  they  do  not  need  to 
kill  or  burn  any  one  or  anything,  then  those  who  enjoy 
the  benefits  of  war  would  have  to  do  their  own  fighting. 

Instruction. 

Instruction  is  to  the  intelligence  what  food  is  to  the 
body.  It  perfects  the  human  race,  elevates  the  spirit  of 
man,  purifies  and  embellishes  it.  By  its  means  we  must 
solve  the  social  question  which  is  agitating  us,  and  estab- 
lish the  empire  of  justice,  now  so  necessary  in  order  that 
the  human  race  may  consider  itself  a  true  family,  and 
men  may  reach  the  point  of  loving  each  other  like  real 
brothers. 


56  FRANCISCO   FERRER 

The  Microscope. 

Ancient  science  was  kept  back  by  the  fact  that  it  had 
no  means  of  observation  but  the  unaided  vision.  To-day 
science  has  at  its  command  the  microscope,  with  which  we 
can  see  the  germs  of  diseases,  and  the  organs  of  animals 
and  vegetables  with  their  component  parts.  The  micro- 
scope is  an  invention  of  free  men  ;  fanatics  are  incapable 
of  inventing  anything,  because  they  impute  everything  to 
their  God. 

The  Pious. 

The  pious  say  that  we  must  not  believe  in  science  or 
practise  its  teachings.  They  say  there  is  an  all-powerful 
God  ;  in  that  case,  if  he  can  do  everything,  why  does  he 
suffer  the  rich  to  exploit  the  poor  ? 

The  Police. 

The  police  arrest  unhappy  people  who  have  stolen  a 
loaf  for  their  family  ;  they  take  them  to  prison,  and  thus 
make  the  misery  greater. 

The  Tavern. 

What  a  pity  that  there  exist  an  infinity  of  taverns, 
instead  of  free  schools !  In  the  tavern  men  brutalize 
themselves,  and  squander  the  resources  of  their  families. 
Women,  too,  suffer  and  degenerate,  and  children  run  about 
the  streets  neglected,  badly  fed  and  badly  clothed  ;  and 
when  they  come  to  be  men,  not  knowing  how  to  read  or 
write,  they  go  the  same  way  as  their  parents. 

Parasites. 

Certain  vegetable  and  animal  organisms,  which  live  at 
the  expense  of  others,  and  do  nothing  for  themselves,  are 


THE   MARTYRS   OF   MONTJUICH     57 

called  parasites.  There  are  parasites,  too,  in  human  society. 
The  rich  men  and  the  priests  live  upon  the  workman  until 
he  is  completely  exhausted. 

I  have  kept  for  the  last  an  extract  which  has  a  tragic 
significance  little  foreseen  when  it  was  published  in  1904. 
A  girl  writes  as  follows  : — 

The  Inquisition. 

.  .  .  But  are  these  times  really  past,  and  only  matters 
of  history  ?  We  have  still,  not  very  far  from  this  truth- 
teaching  school  {yerdadera  Esctield),  a  castle  which  is  the 
centre  of  infection,  with  moats,  subterranean  passages  and 
dungeons.  Even  in  the  cultivated  republic  of  the  United 
States,  a  prisoner  is  seated  in  a  chair  prepared  for  the 
purpose,  and  carbonized  by  electricity.  In  all  countries 
there  is  some  example  of  this  Inquisition.  It  is  time  that 
this  relic  of  barbarism  should  disappear.  Catalonia  is 
dishonoured  by  the  presence  of  that  castle,  whose  history 
strikes  horror  to  the  traveller.  It  is  necessary  that  we 
should  destroy  that  fantasm,  and  on  its  site  lay  out  a 
beautiful  park ;  and  surely  the  free  people  who  enjoy  it 
will  sometimes  think  with  sorrow  of  the  martyrs  who  rest 
under  its  verdure. 

The  "castle"  thus  stigmatized  was,  of  course,  Mont- 
juich.  It  waited  patiently  for  five  years,  and  then  it  had 
its  revenge. 

Some  Dutch  schoolmasters,  it  would  seem,  expressed 
doubts  as  to  the  genuineness  of  the  utterances  of  these 
young  philosophers,  who  were  thereupon  asked  to  state 
their  reflections  upon  this  wholly  gratuitous  scepticism. 
A  girl  of  13  wrote — 

The  thoughts  which  are  printed  in  the  Bulletin  arc  the 
work  of  our  own  intelligence ;    otherwise  it  would  be  a 


58  FRANCISCO   FERRER 

deception  to  publish  them,  and  our  teachers  would   be 
hypocrites. 

A  boy  of  twelve  thus  expressed  himself — 

We  can  speak  of  the  evils  of  society,  such  as  religion, 
property,  war,  and  government,  not  only  because  of  the 
explanations  of  our  teachers,  but  because  we  have  arrived 
at  an  understanding  of  justice  and  truth.  We  adopt  the 
ideas  which  we  maintain  because  we  know  the  truth,  be- 
cause we  know  what  are  the  scourges  of  humanity,  and 
because  we  want  to  lead  an  industrious  and  happy  life, 
uniting  ourselves  with  the  whole  human  race  in  the  in- 
dissoluble bonds  of  fraternity,  accompanied  by  liberty  and 
equality. 

Another  girl  of  13 — 

We  write  down  these  thoughts  because  every  day  we 
receive  lessons  on  some  subjects  connected  with  society, 
religion,  property,  government,  etc.,  and  we  understand 
them,  or  if  sometimes  we  don't,  they  are  repeated  to  us 
until  we  grasp  them  well. 

Now  listen  to  a  boy  of  10 — 

Perhaps  these  professors  think  our  brain  is  not  yet 
sufficiently  developed,  and  I  say  nothing  to  the  contrary  ; 
but  if  a  child  is  always  given  rational  explanations,  he  will 
acquire  as  much  intelligence  as  some  grown-up  persons — 
if  not  more. 

A  shrewd  rap  for  the  Dutch  professors ! 

Whatever  we  may  think  of  the  wisdom  of  Ferrer's 
educational  methods,  every  page  of  these  "Boletines" 
bears  witness  to  the  sincerity  of  his  enthusiasm.  To 
Clericals,  Conservatives,  and  even  to  middle-class  Liberals, 
they  must  have  given  constant  offence  ;  but  I  find  in  them 
— with  the  exception  of  one  article — nothing  that  goes 


TYRANNICIDE  59 

beyond  a  reasonable  liberty  in  the  expression  of  opinion. 
The  one  article  excepted  is  a  translation  from  the  French 
of  Dr.  Meslier,  a  Socialist  deputy,  which  appeared  on 
November  30,  1905.  It  is  an  argument  for  the  right  of 
insurrection,  and  even  of  tyrannicide,  when  a  people  has 
no  other  resource  against  intolerable  wrongs.  It  glorifies 
Harmodius  and  Aristogiton,  Brutus,  Marat  and  Hebert, 
and  expresses  the  opinion  that  M.  de  Plevhe  and  the 
Grand-Duke  Sergius  met  only  their  deserts.  It  contains 
no  sentiments  that  have  not  been  uttered  a  hundred  times 
in  every  college  debating-club  ;  but  it  is  undoubtedly,  if 
not  an  incitement  to,  at  least  a  palliation  of,  violence.^ 
Had  it  been  produced  in  evidence  against  Ferrer  in  either 
of  his  trials,  it  might  not  unjustly  have  prejudiced  his  case. 
It  may  be  pointed  out,  however,  that,  as  believers  in 
Ferrer's  guilt  must — and  do — allege  him  to  have  been  a 
profound  and  accomplished  hypocrite,  they  will  have  some 
difficulty  in  making  his  publication  of  such  sentiments 
tally  with  that  fundamental  axiom  of  their  creed.  No 
sane  man  who  was  actually  contemplating  deeds  of  violence, 
while  hoping  to  elude  punishment  for  them,  would  have 
dreamt  of  printing  Dr.  Meslier's  discourse. 

The  Escuela  Moderna  opened  on  September  8,  1901, 
with  30  pupils,  of  whom  12  were  girls.  "There  was," 
says  Anselmo  Lorenzo,  "a  large  attendance  of  repre- 
sentatives of  scientific  bodies  and  labour  organizations, 
and  Francisco  Ferrer  presided.  ...  I  well  remember  the 


*  It  may  be  worth  while  to  put  alongside  of  this  theoretical  defence  of 
tyrannicide  an  extract  from  an  article  by  Hubert  Lnj^ardcllc,  published  in  the 
JioUtin  for  April  i,  1909,  barely  four  months  before  the  "  Kevolution  "  :  "  After 
all,  every  practically  revolutionary  action  is  bound  to  be  slow  and  progressive. 
It  would  be  puerile  to  expect  miracles  of  life.  No  mutiny,  no  insurrection,  no 
coup  d^itat  will  ever  effect  the  smallest  transformation  of  the  intimate  reality  of 
things." 


60  FRANCISCO   FERRER 

emotion  of  Ferrer  at  that  moment,  and  the  simple  and 
unaffected  greatness  of  his  words  " — 

I  salute  you,  dear  children,  who  are  the  end  and  object 
of  the  institution  which  is  born  at  this  moment,  the 
initial  point  of  the  practical  life  of  an  idea  which  will 
endure  along  with  humanity.  I  salute  you,  parents  who 
have  honoured  us  with  your  confidence.  I  salute  you, 
workers  who,  as  representatives  of  your  comrades,  do 
honour  to  this  occasion.  Let  us  all  understand  that  we 
are  not  merely  one  school  the  more,  but  that  we  are  the 
first,  and  as  yet  the  only  school  which  refuses  submission 
to  the  powerful,  which  raises  up  the  disinherited,  which 
establishes  the  equality  of  classes  and  sexes,  which  puts 
within  the  intellectual  reach  of  boys  and  girls  the  know- 
ledge of  nature  and  the  last  word  of  science,  without 
respect  to  privilege,  as  a  homage  due  to  truth  and  justice. 

By  the  end  of  its  first  year  the  school  counted  70 
pupils  ;  and  its  numbers  steadily  rose  until,  in  1905,  they 
reached  126.  But  the  influence  of  the  school  was  by  no 
means  to  be  measured  by  the  mere  number  of  pupils.  It 
gave  an  extraordinary  impulse  to  education,  not  only  in 
Catalonia,  not  only  in  Spain,  but  more  particularly  in 
South  America.  Old  schools  were  reorganized,  and  new 
schools  started,  upon  the  model  of  Ferrer's  enterprise ; 
and  the  text-books  which  he  published  found  a  wide 
circulation,^      According    to   the  Auditor-General,  there 

'  In  1905,  they  were  used,  not  only  in  many  schools  in  Catalonia,  but  also 
in  Seville,  Malaga,  Granada,  Cordova,  Cartagena,  and  Cadiz.  Anselmo 
Lorenzo,  however,  tells  us  that  the  extension  of  Ferrer's  influence  has  to  be 
taken  with  a  good  deal  of  discount.  Many  schools  called  themselves 
"  rationalist"  merely  to  be  in  the  fashion,  and  because  Ferrer  supplied  them 
with  books,  and  even  scholastic  material,  on  credit.  But  when  the  fashion 
passed,  and  the  danger  began  to  appear,  many  of  these  schools  called  them- 
selves "laic"  instead  of  '•rationalist,"  dismissed  the  books  of  the  Escuela 
Moderna  without  paying  for  them,  adopted  others  for  which  they  had  to  pay 


NEMESIS  61 

were,  in  1906/  in  the  province  of  Barcelona  alone,  "47 
sucursales  de  la  Escuela  Moderna."  Mr.  Hilaire  Belloc, 
concerned  to  explain  to  the  readers  of  a  Catholic  review  ^ 
why  the  Spanish  Government  did  not  simply  suppress  the 
schools  and  have  done  with  it,  has  to  admit  that  "the 
system  of  public  elementary  education  in  Spain  is  so  insuf- 
ficient that  it  would  be  difficult  for  a  Government  to 
protest  against  very  well-managed  and  well-equipped 
schools  such  as  those  which  Ferrer  had  created." 

So,  for  five  years,  all  went  well.  On  Good  Friday, 
April  12,  1906,  seventeen  hundred  pupils  of  the  free 
schools  of  Catalonia  were  assembled  at  a  festival  in  Bar- 
celona, in  pursuance  of  a  custom  which  has  obtained  for 
many  years  among  Spanish  anti-clericals.  The  choice  of 
such  a  day  for  such  a  celebration  causes,  and  is  meant  to 
cause,  great  offence  to  the  Clerical  party ;  and,  in  a  land 
of  religious  equality,  it  would  certainly  be  a  sin  against 
good  taste.  Spain  not  being  such  a  land,  it  is  doubtful 
how  far  our  standards  of  good  taste  apply ;  but,  at  any 
rate,  it  was  in  this  case  an  act  of  hubris^  of  overweening 
confidence — and  Nemesis  punctually  followed  in  its  track. 
It  was  only  six  weeks  later,  on  May  31,  1906,  that  Mateo 
Morral,  who  had  been  employed  as  librarian  at  the  Escuela 
Moderna,  threw  a  bomb  at  the  newly-wedded  King  and 
Queen  of  Spain,  as  theii  marriage  procession  passed  along 
the  Callc  Mayor  of  Madrid.  They  escaped  uninjured, 
but  15  people  were  killed  and  many  wounded,  Ferrer 
was  arrested  ;  the  Escuela  Moderna  and  many  others  were 
closed ;  and,  though  he  was  acquitted  of   complicity   in 

money  down,  taught  patriotic  history,  made  their  pupils  learn  lessons  by  rote 
and  sing  the  hymn  to  the  flag,  and  introduced  examinations  and  prizes — all 
which  things  were  anathema  to  Ferrer. 

'   Process,  p.  310. 

•  Dublin  i?rt//«w,  January,  1910,  p.  175. 


62  FRANCISCO   FERRER 

Morral's  mad  act,  it  was  undoubtedly  the  beginning  of 
his  end. 

Having  gone  at  such  length  into  the  substance  and 
methods  of  Ferrer's  teaching,  I  must  repeat  with  emphasis 
that  all  this  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  justice  or  injustice 
of  his  sentence  and  execution.  It  was  not  as  a  deleterious 
educator  that  he  was  condemned,  but  solely  as  "author 
and  chief"  of  the  Barcelona  riots.  His  soldier-accusers 
generously  applauded  their  own  moderation  in  not  drag- 
ging in  the  enormities  of  the  Escuela  Moderna  to  the  pre- 
judice of  the  accused  ;  ^  while  Ferrer  offered  to  put  all  his 
publications  in  evidence,  but  was  denied  any  opportunity 
of  doing  so.  This  chapter,  then,  is,  strictly  speaking, 
irrelevant  to  the  issue  we  are  examining.  The  reader 
must  put  aside  his  impressions  of  Ferrer's  doctrine  when 
the  time  comes  for  forming  his  judgment  as  to  Ferrer's 
guilt  or  innocence  of  the  crime  for  which  he  was  shot. 
On  the  other  hand,  if  we  find  him  innocent  of  that  crime, 
and  are  amazed  at  the  virulence  of  the  hatred  which 
strained  every  nerve  to  hurry  him  to  his  death,  we  cannot 
too  clearly  remember  The  Adventures  of  Nono,  the  passage 
on  Christianity  quoted  from  the  Compendium  of  Universal 
History,  and  the  tone  of  the  juvenile  philosophers  in  their 
published  deliverances  on  priests,  soldiers,  and  other 
sacred  subjects. 

*  Practically,  of  course,  this  self-congratulation  was  a  self-contradiction ; 
for  it  assumed  that  Ferrer's  work  as  an  educator  could  have  been  brought  up 
against  him  with  damning  effect.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  Prosecutor  did  not 
cite  the  Escuela  Moderna  to  Ferrer's  detriment ;  the  Assessor  did  cite  it, 
while  pretending  not  to  ;  and  the  Auditor,  in  arguing  for  the  confirmation  of 
the  sentence,  used  this  weapon  of  attack  for  all  it  was  worth — and  more. 


V 

THE  CRIME  OF  THE  CALLE  MAYOR 

Ferrer  spent  a  year  in  the  Model  Prison  at  Madrid 
before  he  was  brought  to  trial  for  complicity  in  the  crime 
of  the  Calle  Mayor. 

His  imprisonment,  however,  was  not  so  barbarous  as 
that  which  awaited  him  two  years  later  in  Barcelona. 
He  had  a  light  and  fairly  roomy  cell,  with,  it  would  seem, 
permission  to  take  exercise  pretty  freely  in  the  corridor 
and  courtyard.  These  particulars  one  gathers  from  an 
article  by  the  governor  of  the  prison,  Don  Rafael  Salillas, 
which  appeared  in  a  professional  magazine,^  under  the 
title  The  Cell  of  Ferrer.  The  writer  is  an  ardent  disciple 
of  Lombroso,  and  treats  his  subject  from  a  pedantically 
Lombrosan  point  of  view.  He  quotes  a  saying  of  that 
master:  "Walls  are  the  madman's  paper":  and  tries  to 
make  out  that  Ferrer  was  next  thing  to  a  criminal  lunatic, 
because  he  wrote  versified  sentiments  on  the  walls  of  his 
cell !  The  sentiments  are,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  sufficiently 
commonplace,  and  the  versification  is  said  to  be  wretched  ; 
but  one  may  compose  bad  verses  without  being  either 
a  lunatic  or  a  criminal;^   and  the  prisoner's   traditional 

'  Revista  Penitenciaria,  vol.  iv.,  No.  6,  June,  1907. 

*  A  contributor  to  El  Mundo  relates  that  shortly  before  the  Madrid  trial, 
Ferrer's  advocate,  Enriiliano  Iglesias,  stated  that  Ferrer  had  given  him  a 
manuscript  of  more  than  1000  pages,  consisting  of  poetical  compositions. 
"Are  they  good?"  asked  the  journalist.     "May  I  publish  some  of  them? 


G4>  FRANCISCO  FERRER 

tendency  to  write  on  the  walls  of  his  cell  would  seem  to 
be  comprehensible  enough  when  we  think  of  the  deadly 
monotony  of  prison  life.  Here  are  three  of  Ferrer's 
quatrains,  literally  translated — 

Do  not  expect  anything  from  others,  whatever  beau- 
tiful things  certain  wise  and  powerful  persons  may  offer 
you  :  for  if  they  give,  they  also  enslave. 

To  achieve  the  concord  of  all  men  in  love  and  frater- 
nity, without  distinction  of  sex  or  class,  that  is  the  great 
task  of  humanity. 

No  more  let  gods  or  exploiters  be  adored  or  served  ; 
let  us  all  live  like  good  comrades  in  mutual  affection  and 
respect. 

Such  sentiments  are  certainly  not  calculated  to  set 
the  Thames,  or  even  the  Manzanares,  on  fire ;  but  that 
Ferrer  should  have  thought  it  worth  while  to  inscribe 
them  on  the  wall  of  his  enforced  habitation  is  surely  an 
indication  of  a  simple  and  sincere,  rather  than  a  degene- 
rate or  criminal,  mind.  Be  it  observed  that  there  is  no 
sort  of  hypocrisy  in  them — no  affectation  of  sentiments 
which  might  tell  in  his  favour  at  his  approaching  trial. 
His  radicalism  and — if  I  may  coin  a  word — his  prole- 
tarianism  are  not  concealed.  While  under  indictment  for 
complicity  in  the  crime  of  a  murderous  anarchist,  he 
actually  writes  verses  in  which  the  inspiration  is  distinctly 
"  acratist,"  or,  in  other  words,  anarchist  with  a  difference — 
and  that  difference  he  must  have  known  that  his  accusers 
were  only  too  eager  to  ignore  and  to  deny. 

Nor  did  he  make  any  concealment  of  his  anti-clerical 
views :   for  Sr.  Salillas  shows,  by  the  aid  of  six  photo- 

They  would  be  'good  copy.' "  "We  must  not  publish  any  of  them  till  after 
the  trial,"  replied  Iglesias.  "If  we  did,  his  case  would  be  hopeless."  X 
understand  this  to  be  a  jocose  allusion  to  the  badness  of  the  verses. 


PURITANIC   ATHEISM  65 

graphs,  that  he  plastered  his  cell  with  violently  anti- 
clerical caricatures  from  French  and  Italian  comic  papers, 
and  especially  with  the  grotesque  lampoons  of  L'Asino 
These  prints  are  thus  classified  by  Sr.  Salillas — 

Anti-clerical          ...  ...  ...  ...  5^ 

Anti-militarist      ...  ...  ...  ...  2 

Revolutionary      ...  ...  ...  ...  3 

Contrast  of  Classes  ...  ...  ...  7 

This  delight  in  the  ferocious  insults  which  the  Latin 
caricaturist  loves  to  hurl  at  the  Church  can  scarcely  be 
regarded  as  a  sympathetic  trait  in  Ferrer's  character.  It 
indicates,  one  cannot  but  think,  a  certain  crudity  of  taste. 
Yet  I  do  not  know  by  what  right  we  set  up  our  British 
taste  as  an  infallible  standard.  "Vulgarity,"  says  the 
philosopher,  "  is  the  behaviour  of  other  people." 

An  anecdote  related  by  Sr.  Salillas  is  too  charac- 
teristic to  be  omitted.  One  day  when  Ferrer  was  taking 
exercise,  bare-headed  as  was  his  wont,  he  heard  the  bell 
of  the  sacristan,  and  saw  the  prison  chaplain  bearing  the 
Viaticum  to  the  infirmary.  Instantly  he  ran  back  to  his 
cell,  and  returned  wearing  his  cap !  I  could  not  but  think 
of  this  trait  when  his  brother  Jose  showed  me,  at  Mas 
Germinal,  a  little  round  window  or  ventilator  in  the  stair- 
case wall,  which  had  originally  been  divided  into  four 
quadrants  by  a  cruciform  moulding ;  but  now  it  showed 
only  one  horizontal  bar,  the  perpendicular  arms  of  the 
cross  having  been  broken  off  by  Francisco,  who  could 
tolerate  no  such  symbol  in  his  neighbourhood.^ 

Ferrer's  trial  began  on  June  3,  1907,  and  lasted  for 
six  days.  Every  effort  had  been  made  to  have  him 
handed  over  to  a  military  tribunal,  and  it  was  doubtless 

'  See  illustration,  p.  94. 

F 


66  FRANCISCO   FERRER 

the  failure  of  these  efforts  that  saved  him — for  the  time 
being.  He  was  tried,  along  with  several  other  people 
supposed  to  be  implicated  in  the  crime,  before  the  Fourth 
Section  of  the  Assize  Court. 

No  one  can  read  the  reports  of  the  trial  without  seeing 
that  the  Court  was  by  no  means  well-disposed  towards 
Ferrer,  allowed  great  latitude  to  the  Prosecutor,  oddly 
named  Becerra  del  Toro  (literally,  Calf  of  the  Bull),  and 
treated  Ferrer's  counsel,  Emiliano  Iglesias,  with  scant 
consideration.^  Yet  the  result  was  the  total  failure  of  the 
prosecution,  and  Ferrer's  acquittal — a  result  which  might 
very  well  dispense  us  from  looking  further  into  the  matter. 
But  as  the  clerical  party  (reversing  its  policy  in  the 
Dreyfus  case)  insists  on  going  behind  the]  c/iose  jugee  and 
maintaining  Ferrer's  guilt,  in  spite  of  the  verdict  of  the 
court,  it  may  be  well  to  give  an  outline  of  the  facts  as 
they  appeared  in  evidence. 

Mateo  Morral  Roca,  aged  26,  was  the  son  of  a  rich 
cotton-spinner  at  Sabadell,  one  of  the  industrial  towns  of 
Catalonia.  He  was  a  man  of  some  education,  part  of  it 
acquired  in  Germany ;  but  he  was  taciturn,  morose,  and 
ill-balanced.  He  had  had  violent  disagreements  with  his 
father,  apparently  on  account  of  his  advanced  opinions ; 
and  yet,  oddly  enough,  one  of  his  sisters  became  a  pupil 
at  the  Escuela  Moderna.     Ferrer  admitted  that  he  had 

*  Here  is  a  characteristic  fragment  of  dialogue.  The  Prosecutor,  in  his 
final  speech,  was  recapitulating  the  crimes  of  which  he  accused  Ferrer,  when 
the  latter  remarked :  "I  cannot  hear.  Senor  President,  I  wish  to  hear  all 
that  the  Prosecutor  says." 

Prosecutor  :  "  I  am  speaking  to  the  counsel  for  the  accused.  I  am  not 
speaking  to  the  gallery." 

President  (to  Ferrer)  :  "  Keep  quiet  and  do  not  interrupt,  or  I  shall  have 
you  removed  from  the  court." 

Ferrer  :  "  But  I  have  a  right  to  hear " 

President  :  "It  is  enough  if  your  counsel  hears." 

"  Whereupon,"  says  the  report,  "the  incident  terminated." 


I'hdio  L  au'/uix"'i'  /^e/gc,  Brussels. 

SOLEDAD   VILLAFRANCA. 


{To  face  p.  67. 


SOLEDAD   VILLAFRANCA  67 

known  him,  pretty  intimately,  for  about  two  years ;  but  it 
was  only  on  January  2,  1906,  that  they  entered  into  any 
business  relation.  Then  Morral  became,  as  it  is  usually 
stated,  librarian  {bibliotecario)  of  the  Escuela  Moderna ; 
but  so  far  as  one  can  make  out  from  the  very  imperfect 
reporting  of  the  Spanish  newspapers,  this  does  not  mean 
that  he  simply  superintended  the  school  library  (which 
was  probably  far  from  extensive),  but  rather  that  he  was 
to  undertake  the  management  of  the  "biblioteca,"  or 
series  of  school-books,  which  Ferrer  had  published  and 
was  publishing.  Some  of  the  expressions  used  lead  one 
to  suppose  that  Ferrer  intended  to  make  him  his  partner 
in  this  branch  of  his  activity. 

Be  this  as  it  may,  the  library  which  Morral  controlled 
was  located  on  the  floor  above  the  Escuela  Moderna,  in 
the  Calle  de  Bailen  ;  and  there  Morral  seems  actually  to 
have  taken  up  his  abode.  Ferrer  declared  that  he  did  not 
know  that  Morral  had  rooms  in  the  building,  and  the 
prosecution  tried  to  make  out  that  he  must  have  known. 
The  point  seems  unimportant,  for  Ferrer  made  no  attempt 
to  minimize  his  intimacy  with  Morral ;  but  his  advocate, 
Iglesias,  suggested  a  curious  reason  why  Morral  may 
purposely  have  made  a  mystery  of  his  habitation. 

At  this  point  a  new  character  appears  on  the  scene. 
One  of  the  teachers  in  the  Escuela  Moderna  was  a  lady 
named  Solcdad  Villafranca,  young,  intelligent,  enthusiastic, 
and  very  beautiful.  Morral  fell  passionately  in  love  with 
her ;  indeed  it  is  suggested  that  it  was  in  order  to  gain 
access  to  her  that  he  placed  his  sister  at  the  school,  and 
became  himself  one  of  its  staff.  Mmc.  Villafranca  for 
some  time  regarded  him  as  a  good  friend,  and  he  was  on 
such  terms  with  her  as  to  rebuke  her  for  her  expensive 
and  showy  style  of  dressing,  which  was,  he  said,  the  only 


68  FRANCISCO  FERRER 

thing  he  did  not  like  about  her.  He  was  himself  almost 
ascetic  in  his  habits,  regarding  luxury  as  anti-social,  and 
unworthy  of  a  friend  of  the  people.  At  last  matters 
came  to  a  crisis.  In  the  beginning  of  May,  1906,  Morral 
made  open  advances  to  Mme.  Villafranca,  and  became  so 
pressing  that,  in  order  to  show  that  there  was  no  hope  for 
him,  she  confessed  that  she  loved  another  man.  Morral 
very  soon  divined  or  discovered  that  his  successful  rival 
was  none  other  than  Ferrer :  whereupon  he  said  to  Mme. 
Villafranca,  "  Pues  sobra  uno  de  los  tres  " — "  Then  one  of 
us  three  is  one  too  many."  His  manner  was  so  strange 
and  threatening  that  for  some  time  Mme.  Villafranca  went 
in  terror  lest  he  should  try  to  assassinate  either  Ferrer  or 
herself.  Eventually,  however,  Morral  reminded  her  of  his 
remark,  and  said  he  had  come  to  the  conclusion  that  he 
himself  was  the  one  that  must  get  out  of  the  way.  This, 
to  her  great  relief,  he  did,  leaving  Barcelona  on  May  20. 
The  suggestion  made  by  Iglesias  was  that  Morral 
purposely  concealed  from  Ferrer  the  fact  of  his  having 
established  himself  in  the  Calle  Bailen,  because  his  object 
in  doing  so  was  to  facilitate  the  secret  relations  which  he 
hoped  to  establish  with  Soledad  Villafranca. 

This  portion  of  the  story,  of  course,  rests  almost  entirely 
upon  Mme.  Villafranca's  sworn  statement ;  but  it  is  partly 
confirmed  by  one  or  two  half-crazy  post-cards  which 
Morral  addressed  to  her  from  Madrid,  on  the  very  eve 
of  his  crime.  If  we  accept  her  declaration  (and  no  one 
has  cast  doubt  upon  it)  we  learn  that  her  relation  to 
Ferrer  was  still  a  secret  so  late  as  the  beginning  of  May, 

1906.     The  breach  between  Ferrer  and  Mme.  B had 

taken  place  in  the  previous  year.  It  was  complicated  by 
a  misunderstanding  with  regard  to  money  matters,  but  it 
seems   pretty    safe    to  assume    that   the    appearance   of 


MORRAL   AND   NAKENS  69 

Mme.  Villafranca  on  the  horizon  had   something  to   do 
with  it. 

Morral  betook  himself  to  Madrid,  a  city  with  which  he 
was  almost  entirely  unfamiliar.  He  went  to  the  Hotel 
Iberia,  where  Ferrer  had  once  stayed,  in  1903,  and  where 
some  sort  of  a  banquet  had  been  given  in  his  honour. 
There  Morral  remained  for  three  days,  and  then,  on  May 
24,  took  a  room  in  a  boarding-house,  88  Calle  Mayor, 
with  a  balcony  overlooking  the  street  down  which  the 
marriage  procession  of  the  King  and  Queen  was  to  pass 
on  its  return  to  the  Palace,  only  a  few  hundred  yards 
distant.  The  horror  which  ensued  need  not  be  described. 
Having  achieved  his  exploit,  Morral  walked  calmly  down- 
stairs, and  was  lost  in  the  bewildered  and  panic-sricken 
crowd  that  thronged  the  streets. 

He  made  his  way  to  the  opposite  side  of  the  city, 
and  presented  himself  at  the  office  of  El  MoHn,  a 
Republican  weekly  paper,  then,  and  now,  edited  by  Don 
Jose  Nakens.  Of  Nakens,  the  Madrid  correspondent  of 
the  Daily  Telegraph,  a  person  of  strongly  conservative 
leanings,  gives  the  following  account :  — "  He  is  a 
revolutionary  with  an  exemplary  past.  He  might  have 
been  deputy,  Minister,  whatever  he  chose :  but  he  sacri- 
ficed everything  to  his  Republican  ideal.  A  great  writer, 
he  has  always  lived  on  the  borderline  of  poverty.  He 
is  sixty  years  of  age,  his  figure  is  commonplace,  even 
vulgar;  but  his  face  is  full  of  intelligence  and  his  eyes  are 
very  lively." 

Nakens  was  put  on  trial  along  with  Ferrer,  on  the 
charge  of  harbouring  the  assassin.  His  evidence  is  thus 
summarized  in  the  Daily  Telegraph  of  June  5,  1907 — 

In  the  course  of  his  examination  Nakens  said  that  at 


70  FRANCISCO   FERRER 

half-past  three  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  of  May  31,  while 
he  was  in  the  editorial  office  of  the  MoHn,  a  newspaper 
of  which  he  is  the  proprietor  and  editor,  an  individual 
appeared,  saying  he  wished  to  speak  with  him  alone.  Con- 
ducted into  Nakens's  private  room,  the  man  said  :  "  I  know 
that  you  are  incapable  of  selling  me,  and  I  place  myself 
in  your  hands.  I  have  thrown  a  bomb  at  the  Sovereigns. 
There  are  victims.  I  want  you  to  save  me,  and  I  tell  you 
that  I  shall  not  leave  here  unless  either  dead  or  to  save 
myself  with  your  help." 

Nakens  said  that  he  was  terrified.  Just  then  a  friend 
came  in  with  news  of  the  bomb  outrage,  and  saying  that 
Nakens's  daughter  was  close  to  the  scene  of  the  explosion. 
He  therefore  left  Morral  locked  in  his  room,  and  went  to 
look  after  his  daughter,  returning  at  five  o'clock.  "  At 
that  hour,"  he  continued,  "  I  found  Morral  much  perturbed, 
and  with  his  moustache  cut.  He  told  me  that  he  had  cut 
it  off  with  a  pair  of  scissors,  looking  at  himself  in  a  small 
hand-mirror.  He  was  very  nervous  and  said  he  must  be 
saved.  His  attitude  was  menacing,  and  he  never  took  his 
hand  from  the  pocket  of  his  coat,  where,  as  I  afterwards 
learned,  he  had  a  Browning  pistol." 

In  reply  to  further  questions,  Nakens  said  that  he 
repeatedly  asked  Morral  to  leave,  but  the  latter  begged, 
wept,  and  threatened,  saying  that  the  die  was  now  cast, 
that  he  (Nakens)  must  save  him,  or  both  of  them  would 
perish,  for  he  was  determined  not  to  leave  the  house  by 
himself.  Prisoner  realized  the  dangerous  position  he  was 
in,  and  decided  to  accompany  Morral.  Moreover,  he  said 
his  conscience  rebelled  against  denouncing  a  man  who, 
without  knowing  him,  had  placed  himself  in  his  hands, 
confiding  in  his  honour. 

Relating  how  they  got  away,  Nakens  said  they  took  a 
tram,  and  throughout  the  journey  heard  nothing  spoken 
of  except  the  attempt.  Morral  listened  impassively  while 
several  men  said  it  was  a  brutal  crime,  and  that  the 
assassin   ought   to   be   lynched.      On   leaving   the  tram, 


DEATH  OF  MORRAL  71 

Morral  said  to  him,  "What  a  lot  of  blood!     But  it  was 
necessary.     There  was  no  other  remedy." 

They  proceeded  to  a  wineshop  in  the  suburb  of  Cuatro 
Caminos,  kept  by  a  Republican  named  Canute.  The  out- 
rage was  being  talked  about  and  condemned  there,  one  of 
the  people  saying,  "  If  I  knew  the  assassin  I  would  drag 
his  coward's  heart  out."  ]\Iorral  calmly  said,  "  I  would  do 
the  same  if  I  knew  him." 

Nakens  went  on  to  relate  how  he  succeeded  in  getting 
a  certain  Bernado  Mata  to  harbour  Morral  for  the  night, 
and  to  procure  him  clothes  in  which  to  continue  his  flight, 
Mata  believing  all  the  time  that  Morral  was  a  journalist 
"  wanted  "  by  the  police  for  some  press  offence.  Night 
having  fallen,  Nakens  parted  from  Morral,  who  pressed 
his  hand  and  said,  "  Thanks,  Don  ]os6,  I  knew  you  were  a 
man.  Many  thanks.  I  owe  you  my  life."  Morral  entered 
the  house  of  Mata,  and  Nakens  returned  by  tram  to 
Madrid.  On  the  evening  of  Saturday,  June  2,  Morral 
was  run  to  earth,  at  the  station  of  Torrejon  de  Ardoz, 
fourteen  miles  from  Madrid.  He  shot  the  rural  guard 
who  tried  to  arrest  him,  and  then  shot  himself,  with  the 
before-mentioned  Browning  pistol. 

Nakens  was  sentenced  to  nine  years'  imprisonment ; 
but  in  consideration  of  his  age,  his  high  character,  and  the 
fact  that  he  unquestionably  acted  very  much  against  his 
own  will,  from  an  antique  sense  of  obligation  to  a  fugitive 
who  had,  so  to  speak,  seated  himself  at  his  hearth,  the 
sentence  was  soon  remitted,  and  he  was  set  at  liberty.  In 
forming  our  estimate  of  his  conduct,  it  is  well  to  note  that, 
as  he  himself  pointed  out,  he  was  not  terrorized  by  Morral 
into  the  course  he  took  ;  for  when  he  had  him  locked  up 
in  his  office,  it  would  have  been  the  easiest  thing  in  the 
world  for  him  to  have  handed  the  poor  wretch  over  to  the 


72  FRANCISCO  FERRER 

police.  At  the  end  of  his  examination  Nakens  said  :  "  To 
sum  the  matter  up,  I  must  own  that  in  all  I  did  to  save 
Morral  there  was  a  leaven  of  egoism.  I  feared  lest 
between  the  many  years  I  have  lived  and  the  few  that  are 
left  me  there  should  intervene  the  terrible  silhouette  of 
the  gallows." 

Now  Ferrer,  as  we  saw  in  his  account  of  his  travels 
with  Mile.  Meunier,  was  acquainted  with  Nakens,  and 
greatly  admired  him.  It  is  worth  noting  that  in  the 
photograph  of  Ferrer  and  his  family  taken  at  Bendigo 
some  ten  years  before  these  events,  he  is  somewhat  osten- 
tatiously holding  a  copy  of  Nakens's  paper  El  Motin  {The 
Revolt)}  But  Nakens  not  only  was  not  an  anarchist  of 
any  shade  whatever,  but  was  noted  for  his  resolute  opposi- 
tion to  anarchism,  and  had  been  publicly  thanked  by 
Sr.  Moret,  while  prime  minister  of  Spain,  for  his  services 
in  combating  the  sect.  The  fact,  then,  that  in  November, 
1905,  Nakens  had  written  to  Ferrer  asking  for  financial 
aid  for  El  Motin,  showed  that  he,  at  any  rate,  did  not 
think  of  Ferrer  as  a  militant  anarchist.  Ferrer  replied 
that  for  the  moment  he  had  no  funds  at  his  disposition, 
but  that  he  was  negotiating  a  mortgage  on  his  house  in 
Paris,  and  that,  when  this  was  concluded,  he  would  come 
to  the  assistance  of  the  veteran  journalist.  As  a  matter 
of  fact,  he  sent  him,  early  in  1906,  a  cheque  for  1000 
pesetas  (;^4o),  stating  it  to  be  on  account  of  payment  for 
one  or  two  books  which  he  wished  Nakens  to  write  for  the 
library  of  the  Escuela  Moderna.  Nakens,  however,  seems 
in  the  meantime  to  have  become  doubtful  whether  he 
could  co-operate  with  Ferrer  in  his  educational  work,  and 
the  cheque  remained  in  his  possession  uncashed,  when  the 
police  descended  upon  him. 

*  See  illustration,  p.  15. 


A  BASELESS   PROSECUTION        73 

Beyond  the  facts  above  related,  there  was  absolutely 
nothing  to  associate  Ferrer  with  Morral's  misdeed.  The 
prosecution  tried,  but  totally  failed,  to  make  out  that 
Ferrer  had  supplied  the  criminal  with  money.  There  was, 
in  fact,  no  need  for  him  to  do  so  ;  for  bomb-throwing  is  not 
a  very  costly  sport,  and  Morral  had  received  a  large  sum 
from  his  father  not  long  before  the  tragedy.^  What,  then, 
does  the  evidence  amount  to?  There  is  absolutely  nothing 
in  it  beyond  the  bare  fact  that  the  two  men  knew  each 
other.  It  is  not  at  all  unlikely  that  Morral  may  have  gone 
to  the  Hotel  Iberia  because  he  had  heard  Ferrer  mention 
it ;  but  there  was  no  evidence  even  of  that.  And  if  there 
had  been,  what  would  it  have  mattered  >  Had  Ferrer 
been  cognisant  of  his  design,  he  would  assuredly  have 
warned  Morral  not  to  go  to  an  hotel  with  which  his 
(Ferrer's)  name  had  been  publicly  associated.  As  for 
Morral's  action  in  throwing  himself  upon  the  chivalry  of 
Nakens,  there  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  Ferrer  had, 
even  unconsciously,  anything  to  do  with  it.  Nakens  was 
a  famous  man,  whose  character  and  whose  views  were 
known  to  every  one  who  took  the  smallest  interest  in 
public  affairs.2  If  Morral  had  heard  Ferrer  express  the 
respect  he  certainly  felt  for  Nakens,  that  might,  no  doubt, 
have  influenced  him  towards  the  course  he  took  ;  but  even 
if  we  make  this  needless  assumption,  it  involves  Ferrer  in 
no  sort  of  responsibility.  No  one  doubts  that  Nakens's 
views  were  strongly  opposed  to  anarchism  in  every  shape 

'  On  this  question  of  supply,  no  definite  and  conclusive  evidence  seems  to 
have  been  produced  by  either  side,  though  it  must  surely  have  been  easily 
obtainable.  Spanish  justice  appears  to  admit  a  great  deal  of  assertion  and 
counter-assertion  by  advocates  on  points  on  which  nothing  that  can  be  called 
evidence  is  before  the  court. 

*  Nakens  had  acted  with  somewhat  overstrained  chivalry  towards  the 
Italian  Angiolillo,  who,  in  1897,  assassinated  Sr.  Canovas  ;  and  Morral  referred 
to  this  the  moment  he  entered  Nakens's  office. 


74  FRANCISCO   FERRER 

and  form.  The  Government,  in  releasing  him,  has  fully 
admitted  it ;  for,  had  he  been  an  anarchist  shielding  a 
fellow-conspirator,  he  would  have  had  no  claim  to  clem- 
ency. The  attempt  to  make  out  that  Ferrer  bribed 
Nakens  with  a  cheque  for  ;^40,  to  become  an  accomplice  in 
so  reckless  a  crime,  is  too  puerile  for  consideration.  Even 
if  we  assume  that  Nakens's  vehement  anti-anarchism  was 
hypocritical,  or  that  he  was  capable  of  being  bought  over 
to  terrorism  by  a  cheque  of  £^0,  it  is  perfectly  clear  that 
he  would  not  have  kept  that  damning  instrument  in  his 
possession  a  moment  longer  than  necessary.  It  cannot 
be  argued  that  keeping  the  cheque  uncashed  was  part  of 
his  subtlety ;  for  that  would  mean  that  instead  of  risking 
his  neck  for  £/\.o  he  risked  it  for  nothing  at  all.  By  no 
conceivable  device  can  the  theory  of  the  prosecution  be 
made  to  hold  water.  If  Ferrer,  Morral,  and  Nakens  were 
in  a  conspiracy,  it  was  a  conspiracy  of  lunatics ;  and 
Morral  was  by  no  means  the  maddest  of  the  three. 

It  does  not  seem  to  be  known  where  Morral  procured 
his  bomb ;  but  there  was  no  scrap  of  evidence  to  connect 
Ferrer  or  the  Escuela  Moderna  with  this  nefarious  manu- 
facture. Ferrer  was  shown  to  have  gone  about  his  busi- 
ness as  usual  during  the  days  before  the  crime,  and  on  the 
31st  itself.  He  had  made  arrangements  to  go  to  Paris 
(as  he  frequently  did)  on  the  following  day,  June  i  ;  but, 
struck  with  consternation  by  the  news  from  Madrid,  and 
divining  that  an  attempt  would  be  made  to  implicate  him 
in  the  crime,^  he  felt  that  this  journey  would  wear  the 

*  For  a  moment  I  was  inclined  to  sec  a  slightly  suspicious  circumstance  in 
his  instant  realization  that  he  was  likely  to  be  involved.  It  seemed  as  though 
he  had  somehow  associated  Morral  with  the  crime  before  any  one  else  did. 
But,  on  investigation,  I  found  that  Morral's  name  was  known  in  Madrid,  and 
had  been  telegraphed  to  London,  on  the  very  evening  of  the  event,  so  that  it 
must  certainly  have  reached  Barcelona  as  well. 


1906   AND    1909  75 

appearance  of  flight,  and  consequently  remained  in  Barce- 
lona. On  the  Sunday  following  the  fatal  Thursday  he 
voluntarily  placed  himself  in  the  hands  of  the  police.  His 
enemies,  of  course,  assert  that  he  did  so  because  he  felt 
the  net  to  be  closing  round  him.  However  this  may  be,  it 
is  certain  that  any  attempt  on  his  part  to  elude  arrest 
would  have  been  tantamount  to  a  confession  of  guilt,  and 
would  have  been  a  capital  folly.  He  had  to  choose 
between  two  perfectly  definite  courses :  either  he  must 
take  a  firm  stand  on  his  innocence,  or,  by  absconding,  he 
must,  whether  innocent  or  guilty,  place  himself  in  the 
position  of  an  outlaw,  and  see  his  life-work  hopelessly 
ruined. 

It  may  perhaps  be  alleged  that,  by  the  same  reasoning, 
the  fact  that  he  went  into  hiding  after  the  Barcelona  riots 
should  be  regarded  as  a  confession  of  guilt.  I  am  not  at 
all  sure  that  he  was  not  ill-advised  in  going  into  hiding ; 
but  the  circumstances  of  1909  were  widely  different  from 
those  of  1906.  Catalonia  was  in  a  state  of  war ;  martial 
law  was  proclaimed  ;  Ferrer  learned  that  wild  rumours 
were  abroad  as  to  his  having  taken  a  prominent  part  in 
the  rioting ;  and  he  knew  that  he  was  surrounded  by  ran- 
corous enemies.  His  plan,  as  he  himself  states  it  with 
perfect  probability,  was  simply  to  keep  out  of  the  way 
until  the  trouble  was  over  and  the  excitement  had  calmed 
down.  Had  his  enemies  laid  hands  on  him  while  the 
revolt  was  actually  raging,  he  might  have  been  subjected, 
not  to  the  "  Juicio  Ordinario,"  which  at  least  made  a  show 
of  trying  him,  but  to  a  "Juicio  Sumari'simo,"  which  would 
have  shot  him  practically  at  sight. 

One  of  two  details  of  the  trial  of  1907  remain  to  be 
noted. 

When  we  come  to  examine  the  documentary  evidence 


76  FRANCISCO  FERRER 

of  1909,  we  shall  do  well  to  bear  in  mind  that  among  the 
documents  produced  in  1907  there  were  several  which 
were  manifestly  spurious,  were  denounced  by  Ferrer  as 
forgeries,  and  were  practically  dropped  by  the  prosecution. 
They  contained  such  sentiments  as  these — 

"  Against  war,  the  gendarmery,  and  torturings  there  is 
no  other  remedy  than  the  bomb,  the  dagger,  or  poison." 

"  The  carelessness  of  Artal" — a  man  who  had  attempted 
the  life  of  Maura — "in  not  poisoning  his  weapon  has  ren- 
dered his  sacrifice  to  some  extent  useless.  Those  who 
follow  him  will  know  how  to  remedy  this  error  by  poison- 
ing their  daggers  and  bombs." 

"  The  road  to  liberty  will  be  a  second  Sicilian  Vespers. 
...  It  will  be  a  happy  awakening  to  see  annihilated  in 
another  Sicilian  Vespers  the  Alfonsos,  Mauras,  Tressols, 
Portas,  Despujols,  and  all  tyrants,  in  one  night." 

The  prosecution  seems  tacitly  to  have  accepted  Ferrer's 
indignant  disclaimer,  and  abandoned  the  attempt  to  bring 
these  effusions  home  to  him.  I  find  no  mention  of  them 
in  the  Prosecutor's  speech.  Moreover,  as  they  no  doubt 
remained  among  the  archives  of  the  police,  they  would 
certainly  have  been  resuscitated  in  1909,  had  there  been 
the  slightest  hope  of  making  them  appear  genuine. 

Among  the  witnesses  who  did  not  appear  in  person, 
but  whose  declarations  were  read,  was  Mme.  B — — ,  the 
mother  of  Ferrer's  son  Riego.  They  had  quarrelled,  and 
there  was  bitterness  between  them ;  nevertheless  she 
testified  that  "  although  his  ideas  were  very  advanced,  he 
could  not  be  called  an  anarchist,"  and  that  "he  was  in- 
capable of  having  thrown  the  bomb,  or  induced  any  one 
else  to  do  so,  for  he  was  not  a  man  who  wanted  to  do 
harm  to  any  one."  Ferrer's  wife  was  also  on  the  scene, 
but  there   are  contradictory  reports   as   to  whether  she 


THE  MISSING  LEDGERS  77 

wanted  to  speak  for  him  or  against  him.  Her  evidence, 
in  any  case,  was  not  admitted. 

There  was  one  point,  and  one  only,  on  which  Ferrer's 
case  does  not  seem  entirely  clear  and  above-board.  In 
the  Daily  Telegraph  report  of  his  examination  in  chief,  he 
is  represented  to  have  said  that  no  accounts  were  kept  at 
the  Escuela  Moderna,  "  as  he  did  not  require  to  render  an 
account  to  anybody,  and  therefore  did  not  have  any 
books  "  ;  whereas  it  appeared  from  the  statement  of  one 
of  his  employees,  Batllori,  that  "  the  account-books  previous 
to  June  I  were  destroyed  on  instructions  given  by  Ferrer 
in  a  letter  dated  July  7,  1906."  I  suspect  some  misreport 
or  misunderstanding  in  this  matter.  It  seems  incredible 
that  the  accounts,  if  they  existed,  should  not  have  been 
seized  before  July  7,  five  weeks  after  Ferrer's  arrest.  But 
as  the  discrepancy  exists  in  apparently  trustworthy  records, 
I  thought  myself  bound  to  note  it.'^  The  mere  fact,  if  it 
be  one,  that  Ferrer  should  have  taken  measures  to  keep 
his  account-books  out  of  the  hands  of  the  police,  is  no 
evidence  of  guilt,  but  simply  of  a  natural  desire  not  to 
compromise  friends  and  fellow-workers.  When  an 
anarchist-hunt  is  afoot,  everybody  is  more  or  less  in 
jeopardy  who  appears  to  have  had  any  relations,  especially 
of  a  financial  nature,  with  one  of  the  accused. 

A  writer  known  under  the  pseudonym  of  Federico 
Urales,  and  declaring  himself  an  anarchist,  gave  evidence 
to  the  effect  that  Ferrer  was  not  an  anarchist,  and  had 
specially  warned  him,  in  some  negotiation  as  to  school- 

•  On  re-reading  the  reports,  I  find  that  the  Prosecutor,  in  his  final  speech, 
stated  that  Ferrer  had  the  books  destroyed  the  moment  he  learned  of  Morral's 
crime.  There  is  evidently  a  blunder  somewhere ;  yet  the  Daily  Telegraph 
correspondent  circumstantially  relates  that  the  tardiness  of  the  police  in  seizing 
the  books,  and  the  fact  that  Ferrer  was  free  to  order  their  destruction  so  late 
as  July  7,  caused  much  surprise, 


78  FRANCISCO  FERRER 

books,  that  "  the  h'brary  of  the  Escuela  Moderna  was  not 
anarchist,  but  purely  impartial."  Urales  also  gave  evidence 
— hearsay  evidence,  but  no  attempt  seems  to  have  been 
made  to  contradict  it — as  to  overtures  made  by  a  municipal 
magistrate  to  certain  journalists  with  a  view  to  their  con- 
ducting a  campaign  against  Ferrer  in  the  press.  They 
were  to  be  given  access  to  the  "  dossier  "  of  the  prosecution, 
from  which  they  were  to  extract  and  publish  the  documents 
which  were  thought  most  compromising  to  the  prisoner. 
It  is  true  that  these  particular  journalists  are  represented  as 
having  declined  to  lend  themselves  to  such  a  machination  ; 
but  it  is  none  the  less  true  that  an  active  and  unscrupulous 
campaign  against  Ferrer  was  carried  on  while  his  case  was 
under  judgment.  The  chief  importance  of  Urales'  evidence 
lies  in  the  light  which  it  throws  upon  the  tactics  of  the 
prosecution  in  1909.  It  explains  how,  before  the  Barcelona 
trial,  the  press  was  carefully  fed  with  compromising  docu- 
ments, into  the  authenticity  of  which  we  shall  in  due  time 
have  to  inquire. 

As  a  specimen  of  the  class  of  evidence  admitted  in 
Spanish  courts,  I  may  quote  the  following,  from  the  ex- 
amination of  Don  Leoncio  Ponte,  Lieutenant-Colonel  of 
the  Barcelona  gendarmery : — 

Question:  "What  relation  do  you  think  exists  be- 
tween the  attempt  committed  by  Morral  and  the  accused 
Ferrer  ?  " 

Answer :  "Simply  that  Ferrer  is  the  director  of  the 
whole.  {Sensation^  Ask  any  business  man  in  Barcelona, 
and  you  will  see  that  he  will  answer  :  Ferrer.^* 

This  declaration  of  the  Lieutenant-Colonel  was  actually 
emphasized  by  the  Prosecutor  in  his  final  speech  as  a 
peculiarly  weighty  piece  of  evidence ;  and  we  shall  find 
the  same  gallant  officer  giving  evidence  of  no  less  cogency 


MORRAL'S  LETTER  79 

in  the  Barcelona  trial.  It  must  be  owned,  however,  that 
in  Madrid  the  balance  was  kept  even ;  several  witnesses 
being  allowed  to  depose  that  opinion  in  Barcelona  was 
favourable  to  the  accused.  For  instance,  Don  Alejandro 
Lerroux,  the  Republican  leader,  laid  it  down  that  every 
one  in  Barcelona,  except  the  priests,  was  completely  on 
Ferrer's  side. 

On  the  other  hand,  a  piece  of  evidence  of  very  different 
value,  which  was  known  to  be  in  existence,  was  not  placed 
before  the  court.  It  was  a  letter  from  Morral  to  a  Russian 
friend  in  Paris,  written  some  time  before  the  outrage,  in 
which  he  said,  "  I  have  little  confidence  in  men  like 
Francisco  Ferrer,  Tarrida  del  Marmol,  and  Anselmo 
Lorenzo,  who  are  simple  enough  {bastants  tontos)  still  to 
believe  in  educational  methods  in  a  country  like  Spain." 
Knowing  too  well  to  entrust  such  a  precious  document  to 
the  post,  a  Spanish  exile  to  whom  I  have  spoken  took  the 
actual  letter  from  Paris  to  Perpignan,  where  he  was  met 
by  Sr.  Batllori  of  the  Escuela  Moderna,  who  conveyed  the 
letter  to  Madrid.  Emiliano  Iglesias  had  been  advised  of 
its  existence,  and  asked  to  prolong  the  case  until  it 
arrived ;  but  he  replied  that  he  was  already  certain  of 
securing  an  acquittal ;  and  as  a  matter  of  fact  Ferrer  was 
a  free  man  before  Batllori  reached  the  capital.  The  letter 
remained  in  Ferrer's  keeping,  and  is  in  all  probability 
among  the  documents  seized  by  the  police  in  1909. 
Needless  to  say,  the  prosecution  made  no  mention 
of  it. 

It  is  curious  to  note  that  Ferrer  was  not  in  this  instance 
tried  on  a  capital  charge.  The  Prosecutor,  after  reckoning 
up  the  crimes  laid  to  his  account — namely,  "  2  frustrated 
regicides,  24  murders,  and  107  woundings  and  maimings  " — 
demanded  the  imposition  of  the  penalty  of  imprisonment 


80  FRANCISCO   FERRER 

for  "  i6  years  5  months  and  10  days."  The  judges,  on 
the  other  hand,  found  that  the  Prosecutor  had  "failed  to 
establish  any  link  between  the  presumption  engendered 
by  the  opinions  of  the  accused,  and  the  actual  misdeed 
committed."  On  his  release  Ferrer  immediately  returned 
to  Barcelona,  where  he  met  with  a  triumphal  reception. 


< 

u 
o 

< 


VI 

A  TWO  years'   truce 

One  thing,  at  all  events,  Ferrer's  enemies  had  succeeded 
in  doing — they  had  made  him  famous.     Before  his  arrest, 
and  the  closing  of  the  Escuela  Moderna,  no  one,  practi- 
cally, had  heard  of  him  out  of  Spain  and  Spanish  America, 
while  even  in  Spanish-speaking  countries  he  was  known 
mainly  to  two  classes  of  people  :  militant  anti-clericals  and 
militant  clericals.     When  the  news  of  his  arrest  was  tele- 
graphed to  the  English  papers,  his  name  was  not  given  ; 
he  was  simply  "  the  director   of  a  school   in   Barcelona." 
But  after  his  trial  he  was  a  celebrity.     The  attempt  of  the 
reactionaries  to  crush  a  rationalist  educator  aroused  the 
sympathy  of  all  who  were  interested  in  educational  pro- 
gress ;  and  at  the  same  time  his  name  began  to  be  cited  as 
a  bugbear  in  the  clerical  press,  and  in  reactionary  circles, 
far  beyond  the  limits  of  the  Peninsula.     The  legend  of  his 
enormities — how   he  had    deserted   his   amiable   and    ex- 
emplary spouse,  left  his  children  to  starve,  hypocritically 
defrauded  a  rich  and  devout  benefactress,  and  established 
a  school  where  the  texts  on  the  wall  were  incitements  to 
regicide,  and   the  elements  of  bomb-manufacture    formed 
a   fundamental  part  of  the  curriculum — this  lurid  legend 
grew  and  crystallized  till  it  became  an  article  of  faith  in 
many  pious  bosoms.     The  police  of  Paris  and  London,  too, 
taking  their  keynote  from  their  Spanish  colleagues,  began 

G 


82  FRANCISCO   FERRER 

to  keep  a  watchful  eye  on  him,  and  to  regard  him  as  a 
dangerous  character ;  though  after  some  investigation, 
I  have  failed  to  discover  that  they  had  any  ground  for  this 
opinion,  other  than  suggestion  from  Madrid. 

On  his  release  from  prison,  Ferrer  tried  to  obtain 
authorization  to  re-open  his  school ;  but  after  procrasti- 
nating for  two  years,  the  education  department  decided, 
on  the  very  eve  of  his  death,  that  the  authorization  could 
not  be  accorded.  The  reason  alleged  was  that  the  books 
employed  did  not  fulfil  the  statutory  requirements. 

Debarred  from  carrying  on  his  work  in  the  narrow 
sphere  he  had  chosen,  he  was  forced  to  seek  a  wider  outlet 
for  his  energies :  the  more  willingly,  indeed,  as  inter- 
national organization  was  only  a  logical  consequence  of 
his  principles.  In  December,  1906,  while  he  was  still  only 
in  the  middle  of  his  year  of  durance,  he  had  written  from 
the  Carcel  Modelo  to  William  Heaford  in  London  :  "  Yes, 
my  dear  friend,  I  accept  the  rendezvous  you  give  me  in 
Paris  :  not,  however,  that  we  may  celebrate  my  liberation, 
but  in  order  to  found  a  League  for  the  defence  of  the 
liberty  of  Rationalist  Education  throughout  the  world. 
This  would  form  the  solid  basis  of  peace  fo/  the  future 
amongst  nations  and  individuals.  To  you,  first  of  all, 
I  communicate  this  idea."  The  idea  took  definite  shape 
in  a  circular  issued  in  April,  1908,  inviting  adhesion  to  a 
"Ligue  Internationale  pour  I'Education  rationnelle  de 
I'Enfance."     Its  principles  were  thus  set  forth — 

(i)  The  education  given  to  childhood  ought  to  rest 
upon  a  scientific  and  rational  basis :  consequently  every 
mystical  ^  and  supernatural  notion  ought  to  be  banished. 

(2)  Instruction  is  only  a  part  of  this  education,  which 

'  It  seems  rather  odd  to  find  Maurice  Maeterlinck  figuring  as  a  member  of 
this  League. 


THE   RATIONALIST   LEAGUE        83 

ought  to  include,  along  with  the  formation  of  the  intelli- 
gence, the  development  of  character,  the  cultivation  of 
the  will,  the  preparation  of  a  morally  and  physically 
well-balanced  human  being,  whose  faculties  are  har- 
moniously associated  and  carried  to  their  maximum  of 
power. 

(3)  Moral  education,  far  less  theoretical  than  practical, 
ought  mainly  to  result  from  example,  and  to  rest  on  the 
great  natural  law  of  solidarity. 

(4)  It  is  necessary,  especially  in  the  teaching  of  early 
childhood,  that  programmes  and  methods  should  be;  adapted 
as  exactly  as  possible  to  the  psychology  of  the  child,  a 
point  now  almost  entirely  neglected,  whether  in  public  or 
in  private  teaching. 

Anatole  France  became  Honorary  President  of  the 
League,  Ferrer  was  President,  C.  A.  Laisant,  Vice-President, 
Charles  Albert,  Secretary,  while  the  International  Com- 
mittee consisted  of  Ernest  Haeckel  (Germany),  William 
Heaford  (England),  Giuseppe  Sergi  (Italy),  Paul  Gille 
(Belgium),  and  H.  Roorda  van  Eysinga  (Switzerland).  It 
had  for  its  organ  a  magazine  named  L'Ecole  Renovee, 
founded  by  Ferrer  in  Brussels,  but  afterwards  transferred 
to  Paris.  The  numbers  of  this  review  which  I  have  seen 
are  of  an  austerely  serious  and  technical  character,  demo 
cratic,  no  doubt,  but  no  more  inflammatory  than  (say)  the 
Edinburgh  Review. 

Ferrer  had  at  one  time  an  idea  of  starting  a  Normal 
School  at  Barcelona  ;  but  this  plan  was  either  abandoned 
or  postponed.  On  the  other  hand,  he  revived  the  monthly 
Bulletin  of  the  Escucla  Modcrna,  and  opened  the  new  series 
(May,  1908)  with  a  sort  of  summary  of  his  educational 
creed.  From  this  document  I  have  already  made  a  short 
quotation  (p.  53)  ;  but  as  it  contains  the  clearest  exposition 
of  his  ideas  that  he  has  anywhere  given  us,  I  shall  here 


84  FRANCISCO   FERRER 

reproduce   the  whole  substance  of  it,  omitting  only  repeti- 
tions and  inessential  amplifications.     It  is  headed — 

The  Renovation  of  the  School. 

To  those  who  wish  to  renovate  the  education  of  children 
two  methods  are  open :  To  work  for  the  transformation  of 
the  school  by  studying  the  child,  so  as  to  prove  scientifically 
that  the  present  organization  of  education  is  defective, 
and  to  bring  about  progressive  modification  ;  or,  to  found 
new  schools  in  which  shall  be  directly  applied  the  prin- 
ciples .  .  .  held  by  those  who  eschew  the  conventionalities, 
prejudices,  cruelties,  trickeries  and  falsehoods,  upon  which 
modern  society  is  based. 

There  is  much  to  be  said  for  the  first  method.  It 
corresponds  to  that  evolutionary  conception  which  all  men 
of  science  defend,  and  which  alone,  according  to  them,  can 
succeed. 

In  theory  they  are  right,  and  we  are  quite  ready  to 
recognize  it.  .  .  .  But  in  reality,  I  do  not  believe  that 
those  who  struggle  for  human  emancipation  can  expect 
much  from  this  method.  Governments  have  ever  been 
careful  to  hold  a  high  hand  over  the  education  of  the 
people.  They  know,  better  than  any  one  else,  that  their 
power  is  based  almost  entirely  on  the  school.  Hence, 
they  monopolize  it  more  and  more.  The  time  is  past 
when  they  opposed  the  diffusion  of  instruction,  and  when 
they  sought  to  restrain  the  education  of  the  masses.  These 
tactics  were  formerly  possible,  because  the  economic  life 
of  the  nations  allowed  the  prevalence  of  popular  ignorance, 
that  ignorance  which  renders  mastery  easy.  But  circum- 
stances have  changed.  The  progress  of  science,  dis- 
coveries of  all  kinds,  have  revolutionized  the  conditions 
of  labour  and  production.  It  is  no  longer  possible  for  a 
people  to  remain  ignorant ;  it  must  be  educated  in  order 
that  the  economic  situation  of  one  country  may  hold  its 
own  and  make  headway  against  the  universal  competition. 
In  consequence,  governments  want  education  ;  they  want 


AN  EDUCATIONAL   CREED         85 

a  more  and  more  complete  organization  of  the  school,  not 
because  they  hope  for  the  renovation  of  society  through 
education,  but  because  they  need  individuals,  workmen, 
perfected  instruments  of  labour,  to  make  their  industrial 
enterprises  and  the  capital  employed  in  them  profitable. 
And  we  have  seen  the  most  reactionary  governments 
follow  this  movement  ;  they  have  realized  perfectly  that 
their  former  tactics  were  becoming  dangerous  to  the 
economic  life  of  the  nations,  and  that  it  is  necessary  to 
adapt  popular  education  to  new  necessities. 

***** 

Forthwith  began  terrible  struggles  for  the  conquest  of 
the  school ;  in  every  country  these  struggles  are  still  con- 
tinuing with  intensity ;  here,  bourgeois  republican  society 
triumphs ;  there,  clericalism.  All  sides  know  the  im- 
portance of  the  game,  and  recoil  from  no  sacrifice  to  secure 
a  victory.  Every  one's  cry  is  :  "  For  and  by  the  School," 
*  *  *  *  * 

If  the  governing  powers  had,  as  men,  the  same  ideas 
as  benevolent  reformers,  if  they  were  really  concerned  for 
the  continuous  reorganization  of  society  in  the  sense  of 
the  progressive  disappearance  of  slavery,  we  might  admit 
that  scientific  effort  alone  would  improve  the  destiny  of 
nations.  But  we  should  reckon  without  our  host.  We 
know  too  well  that  those  who  dispute  for  power  have  in 
view  nothing  but  the  defence  of  their  own  interests ;  that 
they  busy  themselves  .only  with  conquering  what  they 
want  for  themselves,  for  the  satisfaction  of  their  appetite. 
Long  ago  we  ceased  to  believe  in  the  words  with  which 
they  mask  their  ambitions.  Certain  naive  persons  still 
refuse  to  believe  that  there  is  not  among  them,  after  all, 
some  little  sincerity,  and  imagine  that  they,  too,  sometimes 
desire  the  happiness  of  their  fellows.  But  these  become 
fewer  and  fewer,  and  the  positivism  of  the  century  has 
become  far  too  cruel  for  us  to  deceive  ourselves  longer  as 
to  the  intentions  of  those  who  govern  us. 


8G  FRANCISCO   FERRER 

The  organization  of  the  school,  far  from  spreading  the 
ideal  which  we  imagined,  has  made  education  the  most 
powerful  means  of  enslavement  in  the  hands  of  the  govern- 
ing powers  to-day.  Their  teachers  are  only  the  conscious 
or  unconscious  instruments  of  these  powers,  modelled, 
moreover,  according  to  their  principles  ;  they  have  from 
their  youth  up,  and  more  than  any  one  else,  been  sub- 
jected to  the  discipline  of  authority  ;  few  indeed  are  those 
who  have  escaped  the  influence  of  this  domination  ;  and 
these  remain  powerless,  because  the  school  organization 
constrains  them  so  strongly  that  they  cannot  but  obey  it. 
It  is  not  my  purpose  here  to  examine  the  nature  of  this 
organization.  It  is  sufficiently  well  known  for  me  to 
characterize  it  in  one  word :  constraint.  The  school 
imprisons  children  physically,  intellectually  and  morally,  in 
order  to  direct  the  development  of  their  faculties  in  the 
paths  desired.  It  deprives  them  of  contact  with  nature, 
in  order  to  model  them  after  its  own  pattern.  And  this 
is  the  explanation  of  all  which  I  have  here  set  forth:  the 
care  which  governments  have  taken  to  direct  the  educa- 
tion of  the  people,  and  the  bankruptcy  of  the  hopes  of 
believers  in  liberty.     The  education  of  to-day  is  nothing 

more  than  drill. 

*  *  *  »  * 

There  is  no  reason  for  governments  to  change  their 
system.  They  have  succeeded  in  making  education  serve 
their  advantage  ;  they  will  likewise  know  how  to  make 
use,  to  their  advantage,  of  any  improvements  that  may  be 
proposed. 

It  is  sufficient  that  they  maintain  the  spirit  of  the 
school,  the  authoritarian  discipline  which  reigns  therein, 
for  all  innovations  to  be  turned  to  their  profit. 

***** 

One  may  judge  with  what  ease  education  receives  the 
stamp  they  wish  to  put  upon  it,  and  how  easy  is  the  task 
of  those  who  wish  to  enslave  the  individual.  The  best 
methods  become  in  their  hands  only  the  more  powerful 


AN  EDUCATIONAL   CREED         87 

and  perfect  instruments  of  domination.  Our  own  ideal  is 
certainly  that  of  science,  and  we  demand  that  we  be  given 
the  power  to  educate  the  child  by  favouring  its  develop- 
me  it  through  the  satisfaction  of  all  its  needs,  in  proportion 
as  they  arise  and  grow. 

We  are  convinced  that  the  education  of  the  future  will 
be  of  an  entirely  spontaneous  nature  ;  certainly  we  cannot 
as  yet  realize  it,  but  the  evolution  of  methods  in  the  direc- 
tion of  a  wider  comprehension  of  the  phenomena  of  life, 
and  the  fact  that  all  advances  towards  perfection  mean  the 
overcoming  of  some  constraint, — all  this  indicates  that  we 
are  in  the  right  when  we  hope  for  the  deliverance  of  the 
child  through  science. 

***** 

Let  us  not  fear  to  say  that  we  want  men  capable  of 
evolving  without  stopping,  capable  of  destroying  and 
renewing  their  environments  without  cessation,  of  renew- 
ing themselves  also  ;  men  whose  intellectual  independence 
will  be  their  greatest  force,  who  will  attach  themselves  to 
nothing,  always  ready  to  accept  what  is  best,  happy  in  the 
triumph  of  new  ideas,  aspiring  to  live  multiple  lives  in  one 
life.  Society  fears  such  men  ;  we  therefore  must  not  hope 
that  it  will  ever  want  an  education  able  to  give  them 
to  us. 

A  trial  has  been  made  which  has  already  given  excel- 
lent results.  We  can  destroy  all  which  in  the  present 
school  answers  to  the  organization  of  constraint,  the 
artificial  surroundings  by  which  the  children  are  separated 
from  nature  and  life,  the  intellectual  and  moral  discipline 
made  use  of  to  impose  ready-made  ideas  upon  them, 
beliefs  which  deprave  and  annihilate  natural  bent.  With- 
out fear  of  deceiving  ourselves,  we  can  restore  the  child  to 
the  environment  which  entices  it,  the  environment  of 
nature  in  which  he  will  be  in  contact  with  all  that  he  loves, 
and  in  which  impressions  of  life  will  replace  irksome 
book-learning.     If  we  did  no  more  than  that,  we  should 


88  FRANCISCO  FERRER 

already  have  prepared  in  great  part  the  deliverance  of  the 

child. 

In  such  conditions  we  might  already  freely  apply  the 
data  of  science,  and  labour  most  fruitfully. 

I  know  very  well  that  we  could  not  thus  realize  all 
our  hopes,  that  we  should  often  be  forced,  for  lack  of 
knowledge,  to  employ  undesirable  methods  ;  but  a  certi- 
tude would  sustain  us  in  our  effort,  namely  that,  even 
without  reaching  our  aim  completely,  we  should  do  more 
and  better  in  our  still  imperfect  work  than  the  present 
school  accomplishes.  I  like  the  free  spontaneity  of  a 
child  who  knows  nothing,  better  than  the  world-knowledge 
and  intellectual  deformity  of  a  child  who  has  been 
subjected  to  our  present  education. 

What  we  have  attempted  at  Barcelona  others  have 
attempted  elsewhere,  and  we  have  all  seen  that  the  work 
is  possible.  And  I  think  it  should  be  begun  without 
delay.  We  should  not  wait  until  the  study  of  the  child 
has  been  completed  before  undertaking  the  renovation 
of  the  school ;  if  we  must  wait  for  that,  we  shall  never 
do  anything.  We  will  apply  what  we  know,  and,  pro- 
gressively, all  that  we  shall  learn.  Already  a  complete 
plan  of  rational  education  is  possible,  and,  in  such  schools 
as  we  conceive,  children  may  develop,  happy  and  free, 
according  to  their  natural  tendencies.  We  shall  labour 
to  perfect  and  extend  it. 

A  complete  criticism  of  this  document  would  be  a 
complete  tractate  on  education.  Even  were  I  capable 
of  doing  so,  it  is  no  part  of  my  business  to  sift  the  true 
from  the  false,  the  sound  from  the  unsound,  among 
Ferrer's  ideas.  I  am  not  concerned  with  their  justice, 
but  only  with  their  sincerity  ;  and  that  cannot  be 
established  by  argument.  If  any  one  can  read  the  fore- 
going pages,  and  believe  the  writer  was  affecting  an 
enthusiasm  for   education   in  order    to   cloak  murderous 


AN  AMBITIOUS   DESIGN  89 

and  incendiary  designs,  he  is  of  course  free  to  do  so  ;  but 
such  an  extreme  of  credulity  is  certainly  rare.  It  is  not 
as  though  Ferrer  affected  any  tenderness  or  consideration 
for  the  existing  social  order.  His  hostility  to  it  declares 
itself  in  every  line,  along  with  the  belief  that  the  school 
is  the  most  effective  point  of  attack  on  it.  If  any  one 
tells  me  that  he  holds  this  belief  to  be  hypocritical,  I  can 
only  reply  that  I  am  much  more  disposed  to  doubt  his 
sincerity  than  Ferrer's. 

A  favourite  allegation  against  Ferrer  as  an  educator 
is  that  it  was  his  confessed  object  to  "  flatter  all  the 
appetites  of  youth."  This  expression  occurs  in  the 
dictamen  of  the  Auditor-General  and  in  many  other 
places.  It  is  probably  an  amiable  paraphrase  of  the 
sentence  in  which  Ferrer  lays  it  down  as  his  purpose  "  to 
educate  the  child  by  favouring  its  development  through 
the  satisfaction  of  all  its  needs,  in  proportion  as  they  arise 
and  grow." 

Among  the  projects  which  he  nourished  during  this 
period  of  seeming  security  was  that  of  publishing  what 
he  called  an  Encyclopccdia  of  Higher  Popular  Education. 
It  was  to  consist  of  fifteen  volumes,  dealing  with  the 
following  subjects : — 

i)  The  Evolution  of  the  Worlds. 

'2)  The  Story  of  <^he  Earth. 

'3)  The  Origin  of  Life. 

(4)  The  Evolution  of  Living  Things. 

'5)  The  Factors  of  Organic  Evolution. 

[6)  The  Origin  and  Development  of  Man. 

[7)  Thought. 

[8)  The  History  of  Civilization. 

[9)  Religions. 
(10)  Law  and  Morals. 


90  FJ^ANCISCO   FERRER 

(ii)  Social  Organization. 

(12)  Economic  Systems. 

(13)  The  Evolution  of  Technics  and  Art. 

(14)  The  Factors  of  Social  Evolution. 

(15)  Man  and  the  World. 

It  would  be  unfair  to  criticize  such  a  scheme  from  its 
mere  headings ;  but  there  is  an  appearance  of  overlapping 
in  the  suggested  classification  which  leads  one  to  doubt 
whether  Ferrer  was  quite  equal  to  the  editorship  of  such 
a  work.  But  that  he  had  seriously  undertaken  it  is 
beyond  question :  he  had  even  made  considerable  progress 
in  arranging  for  contributions  to  it.  Meanwhile  he  kept 
his  publishing-house  (at  596  Calle  Cortes,  Barcelona)  busy 
in  various  ways,  and  was,  at  the  time  of  the  catastrophe, 
actively  preparing  illustrated  editions  of  U Homme  et  la 
Terre  by  Reclus  and  of  Kropotkin's  La  Grande  Revolution. 

One  of  the  statements  which  Ferrer's  enemies  appar- 
ently hold  most  damaging  to  his  reputation,  and  are 
consequently  never  tired  of  repeating,  is  that  he  increased 
his  fortune  by  speculations  on  the  Stock  Exchange.  The 
implication  is,  of  course,  that  he  gambled  with  Mile. 
Meunier's  money  in  order  to  gratify  his  own  luxurious, 
if  not  vicious,  tastes.  This  is  stated  in  so  many  words 
by  the  more  violent  of  his  assailants  ;  others  more  deli- 
cately insinuate  it  after  this  fashion :  "  He  gambled  with 
success  on  the  Stock  Exchange,  greatly  increased  his 
wealth,  but  consistently  applied  what  could  be  spared 
from  the  private  consumption  of  his  mistress  and  himself 
to  a  well-organized  anti-Christian  propaganda."  ^ 

Now  it  is  perfectly  true  that  Ferrer,  in  his  dealings 
with  money,  showed   considerable   business   capacity :    a 
form  of  worldly  wisdom  which  is  not  reckoned  criminal, 
^  Mr.  Hilaire  Belloc  in  the  Dublin  Review,  January,  1910. 


INVESTING   OR  GAMBLING?        91 

one  understands,  even  in  the  Society  of  Jesus.  As  the 
initial  expenses  of  the  Escuela  Moderna  far  exceeded  the 
annual  income  derived  from  Mile.  Meunier's  legacy,  he 
was  very  soon  obliged  to  borrow  money ;  and  in  course 
of  time  he  placed  several  mortgages  on  his  Paris  property. 
Some  of  the  money  thus  raised  he  invested  judiciously, 
notably  in  a  new  Barcelona  Building  Company  (Fomento 
de  Obras  y  Construcciones),  the  shares  of  which  steadily 
rose.  It  is  probably  untrue  to  say  that  he  "greatly 
increased  his  wealth  " :  ^  a  more  accurate  statement  would 
be  that  by  handling  his  resources  judiciously  he  found 
means  to  devote  larger  sums  to  his  work  than  he  could 
otherwise  have  commanded  without  making  fatal  inroads 
on  his  capital.  To  say  that  he  "gambled"  on  the  Stock 
Exchange  is  a  gross  misrepresentation.  It  may  seem 
idle  to  cavil  at  such  a  vague  expression  as  "gambling," 
which  is  only  an  unfriendly  term  for  dealings  in  which 
it  is  admitted  that  Ferrer  did  engage.  But  we  shall  have 
occasion  to  estimate  the  damage  which  may  be  done  by 
the  reckless  repetition  of  vaguely  defamatory  language 
when  we  find  the  Prosecutor,  in  the  Barcelona  trial,  so 
possessed  by  the  legend  of  Ferrer's  "gambling"  as  to 
hint,  confessedly  without  a  shadow  of  evidence,^  that  he 
engineered  the  riots  in  the  interests  of  some  Stock 
Exchange  "deal." 

Whatever  word  we  choose  to  apply  to  his  methods  of 
administering  his  property,  the  one  thing  certain  is  that 
his  motive  in  money-making  was  solely  to  further  what 

•  Common  report  ridiculously  exaggerated  his  means.  He  was  frequently 
spoken  of  as  a  "millionaire,"  which  he  never  was  even  in  pesetas,  much  less 
in  dollars  or  pounds.  These  exaggerations  contributed  to  his  undoing,  for 
they  led  people  to  think  of  him  as  a  man  who  could,  if  he  would,  finance  a 
revolution. 

*  See  pp.  203,  281. 


92  FRANCISCO  FERRER 

he  regarded  as  his  mission.  There  is  an  overwhelming 
amount  of  testimony  to  the  fact  that  his  scale  of  personal 
expenditure  was  in  no  way  altered  after  he  came  into  his 
fortune.  His  way  of  living  was  as  frugal  in  the  days  of  his 
wealth  as  it  had  been  in  the  days  of  his  poverty.  We 
can  follow  all  his  movements  in  the  later  years  of  his  life. 
In  London  he  does  not  put  up  at  the  Savoy  or  the 
Carlton,  but  seeks  out  a  modest  Bloomsbury  boarding- 
house.  In  Paris  he  goes  to  third-  or  fourth-rate  hotels  in 
the  quarter  most  affected  by  his  compatriots — not  far, 
indeed,  from  the  Rue  Richer  which  had  such  painful 
memories  for  him.  Mme.  Berthe  Delaunay,  who  inter- 
viewed him  in  1908,  writes  as  follows  : —  ^ 

"  I  was  not  a  little  astonished  when,  calling  upon  him 
with  an  introduction  from  Charles  Malato,  I  found  him  on 
the  sixth  floor  of  a  far  from  elegant  house  on  the  Boule- 
vard St.  Martin,  poorly  installed  in  a  little  apartment  of 
three  tiny  rooms.  The  door  was  opened  to  me  by  a 
young  lady  of  great  beauty,  who,  speaking  with  a  strong 
Spanish  accent,  invited  me  to  enter,  and  ushered  me  into 
a  study  where  I  found  the  great  Spanish  educator  seated 
in  the  midst  of  piles  of  books  and  papers.  He  had  to 
clear  a  heap  of  pamphlets  from  the  chair  which  he  offered 
me. 

All  this,  of  course,  leaves  it  literally  true  that  he 
devoted  to  his  work  "  what  could  be  spared  from  the 
private  consumption  of  his  mistress  and  himself."  The 
mischief  is  that  a  literal  truth  may  be  so  stated  as  to 
become  a  highly  injurious  moral  falsehood. 

The  most  conclusive  testimony  to  the  almost  ascetic 
simplicity  of  Ferrer's  mode  of  life  is  afforded  by  his 
so-called  "villa"  of  Mas  Germinal,  at  Mongat,  nine  miles 

1  U Italia  (Paris),  October  13,  1910. 


MAS   GERMINAL   (GENERAL   VIEW). 


COURTYARD    AND    CISTERN,    MAS    GERMINAL, 


iTo/acep.  93- 


MAS   GERMINAL  93 

from  Barcelona.  It  was  in  July,  1910,  nine  months  after 
Ferrer's  death,  that  I  visited  his  brother  Jose,  who  was 
occupying  the  house,  and  cultivating  the  land,  as  agent 
for  the  Government,  Ferrer's  property  having  been 
confiscated.  Misled  by  the  term  "villa,"  I  looked  out 
for  a  comfortable  bourgeois  residence,  of  the  type  so 
common  on  the  outskirts  of  wealthy  cities  such  as 
Barcelona.  But  as  I  walked  along  the  coast  road  from 
Mongat  station,  I  saw  nothing  at  all  answering  to  the 
Mas  Germinal  of  my  fancy.  An  old  woman  directed  me 
to  turn  up  a  rough  side  road  ;  and  there,  in  a  little  hollow 
not  more  than  a  hundred  yards  from  the  sea,  I  came  upon 
an  old  farmhouse  so  exceedingly  primitive  of  aspect  that 
I  could  scarcely  believe  it  to  be  the  "villa"  of  which  I 
was  in  search.  But  it  was  no  other;  and  Jose  Ferrer, 
summoned  from  the  garden  where  he  had  been  working, 
presently  greeted  me  with  a  cordial  hospitality  in  which 
it  was  not  difficult  to  trace  the  influence  of  his  ten  years 
in  Australia. 

Through  a  dilapidated  gateway,  one  entered  a  small 
paved  courtyard.  Close  to  the  gateway  was  one  of  the 
large  built-up  washing-troughs,  perhaps  twelve  feet  by  four 
in  extent,  which  are  common  adjuncts  to  peasant  houses 
in  Spain.  The  milky  blue  of  the  water  showed  that  the 
cistern  had  done  its  work  for  the  day  ;  and,  indeed,  the 
family  washing  dangled  from  a  line  stretched  across 
the  courtyard,  under  which  one  had  to  duck  in  order  to 
reach  the  house.  Between  the  cistern  and  the  house  a 
high  wooden  gate  opened  into  the  garden.  As  for  the 
"  villa  "  itself,  it  would  mightily  astonish  those  people  who 
imagine  Ferrer  living  in  luxury  on  the  spoils  of  his 
hypocrisy.  Built  in  1777,  it  is  a  square  white-washed 
blcck  of  two  storeys.     In  the  lower  storey  there  is  only 


94  FRANCISCO   FERRER 

one  window,  giving  light  to  the  kitchen  at  the  back.  In 
front,  on  the  ground  level,  there  is  no  opening  save  a 
wide  arched  doorway  ;  while  in  the  upper  storey  there  are 
two  narrow  windows,  one  of  them  heavily  barred.  The 
arched  entrance  leads  into  the  living-room  of  the  house, 
which  receives  light  and  air  through  this  opening  alone. 
To  the  best  of  my  belief,  there  is  no  door  in  this  doorway, 
over  which,  however,  a  rough  curtain  can  be  drawn.  A 
second  doorless  doorway  leads  from  the  living-room  into 
the  kitchen  beyond,  while  a  third  opens  to  the  right  into 
a  large  store-room  and  lumber-room,  with  no  window, 
containing,  when  I  saw  it,  a  wine-press,  some  barrels,  a 
zinc  bath,  and  some  heaps  of  garden  produce.  Some 
twenty  or  thirty  sacks  (I  think  of  barley)  were  piled 
against  the  living-room  wall,  between  the  entrance  and 
the  kitchen.  A  table,  a  wooden  bench,  a  few  rush- 
bottomed  chairs,  and  a  grandfather's  clock,  completed 
the  furniture  of  the  room,  save  for  one  object — a  cottage 
piano,  of  French  manufacture,  with  the  initials  "  S.  V." 
carved  upon  it.  At  the  back,  a  flight  of  steps  led  to  the 
upper  floor  ;  and  the  wall  above  this  stairway  was  pierced 
by  the  originally  cruciform  ornament  which  (as  before 
mentioned)  Ferrer  had  despoiled  of  its  vertical  arms, 
altering  the  cross  into  a  bar.  On  the  wall  hung  three 
coloured  advertisements,  one  of  a  Catalan  illustrated  paper, 
another  of  a  Castilian  encyclopaedia,  and  the  third  a 
framed  poster  of  "The  Bay  Excursion  Company,  Ltd.," 
announcing  a  daily  trip  of  "  the  Ozone  Excursion 
Steamer "  from  Melbourne  to  Queenscliff  and  Sorrento. 
The  room,  in  short,  would  in  England  have  been  thought 
more  fitted  for  a  coach-house  than  for  a  human  habitation. 
In  that  Mediterranean  climate  it  was  habitable  enough ; 
but   even   there  it  suggested   the    stoic    rather   than    the 


JOSP:    FERRER. 


\To  face  p.  93. 


POLICE   PILLAGE  05 

sybarite.  If  ever  man  led  the  simple  life,  it  was  Ferrer  at 
Mas  Germinal. 

And  on  every  hand  there  were  traces  of  the  havoc 
wrought  by  the  police  in  their  search  for  incriminating 
documents.  On  the  very  threshold  of  the  house,  I 
stumbled  and  almost  fell  upon  an  old  box-lid,  laid  down 
to  cover  a  hole  which  they  had  dug  in  the  brick  floor. 
I  saw  water-pipes  cut,  drains  broken  open,  bricks  picked 
out  of  the  walls.  Upstairs — where  all  the  arrangements 
were  as  primitive  as  those  on  the  ground  floor — I  could 
not  see  Ferrer's  ov/n  room  because  it  was  still  sealed 
up  by  the  authorities.  So  was  a  great  packing-case  full 
of  books,  which  cumbered  one  of  the  two  bedrooms 
actually  in  use.  I  shall  not  repeat — for  it  is  not  strictly 
relevant — Don  Jose's  story  of  the  wanton  destruction 
and  pillage  to  which  the  house  and  its  appurtenances 
were  subjected,  but  shall  merely  say  that  the  conduct 
of  the  police  seems  to  have  been  as  shameful  as  it  was 
silly.  That  the  story  was  absolutely  true  I  have  not 
the  least  doubt  ;  for  much  of  it  I  had  ocular  evidence. 

Without  the  smallest  intellectual  or  social  pretensions, 
Jose  Ferrer  is  a  most  sympathetic  and  even  impressive 
figure.  He  wore  throughout  my  visit  the  flannel  shirt 
and  trousers  in  which  he  had  been  working  when  I 
arrived.  The  shirt-sleeves,  rolled  up  to  the  elbow,  showed 
arms  as  brown  as  the  soil  he  tilled  ;  and  no  less  tanned 
was  the  breast  which  the  unbuttoned  collar  revealed.  But 
his  very  handsome  head  would  anywhere  have  attracted 
notice  by  its  air  of  grave  distinction  ;  and  his  manners, 
while  full  of  simple  cordiality,  were  entirely  dignified. 
He  spoke  of  his  brother  without  the  least  affectation  or 
emphasis,  but  with  deep  feeling.  "  No  two  brothers," 
he  said,  "  live  like  he  and   mc."     It   was   Francisco  who 


96  FRANCISCO   FERRER 

bought  the  house  and  land,  while  Jose  paid  for  the  stock 
and  improvements.  Now  the  stock  is  swept  away  (the 
fowl-house,  by-the-by,  is  sealed  up !)  and  Jose  works  in 
the  garden  for  the  Government  at  a  small  daily  wage. 

"  Where,"  I  asked,  "  was  your  brother's  study  ?  Where 
did  he  do  his  work  > "  Without  a  word  Jos6  picked  up  a 
round  restaurant  table,  and,  carrying  it  into  the  garden, 
planted  it  under  a  Barcelona  nut-tree  growing  against  the 
end  of  the  house.  Then  he  returned  for  a  wicker  chair 
and  a  steamer  chair  which  he  placed  beside  the  table. 
"  Here,"  he  said,  "  my  brother  work.  Francisco  he  sit 
here  ;  Soledad  " — pointing  to  the  steamer  chair — **  she  sit 
there."  If  not  quite  Arcadian — for  the  marble-topped 
restaurant  table  was  a  little  out  of  keeping — the  picture 
was  at  any  rate  idyllic.  Was  it  retributive  justice,  or 
vengeful  and  unscrupulous  fanaticism,  that  had,  only  a 
year  ago,  abruptly  converted  the  idyll  into  a  tragedy  ? 


:3^ 


< 

x: 


::i      -^ 


A 


VII 

BARCELONA 

As  the  tragedy  approaches,  it  is  time  to  set  the  scene. 

On  a  strip  of  gently-sloping  seaboard,  about  four 
miles  wide,  between  the  Mediterranean  and  the  coast- 
range  of  Catalonia,  Barcelona  and  its  suburbs  occupy 
one  of  the  finest  situations  imaginable.  Naples  and 
Genoa  are  more  picturesque,  inasmuch  as  they  rise  more 
abruptly  from  the  sea.  But  here  nature  seems  to  have 
bevelled  the  coast  expressly  for  the  convenience  of  a 
great  city.  Down  by  the  harbour  lies  the  old  Barcelona, 
with  its  gloomy,  grand  cathedral,  and  its  narrow  streets. 
Its  outline  is,  roughly  speaking,  oval,  and  it  is  bisected, 
along  the  shorter  axis,  by  the  magnificent  shady  prome- 
nade of  the  Ramblas,  three-quarters  of  a  mile  long,  and 
certainly  one  of  the  most  animated  thoroughfares  in  the 
world.  Old  Barcelona,  however,  is  merely  the  nucleus 
of  the  modern  town,  laid  out  on  the  rectangular  American 
plan,  but  saved  from  monotony  by  splendid  diagonal 
boulevards,  and  by  the  fact  that,  every  here  and  there, 
one  comes  upon  the  old  streets  of  one  of  the  many 
villages — Sans,  Gracia,  San  Martin  de  Provensals,  etc. 
— now  embraced  in  the  city  limits.  The  planning  of 
the  "  ensanchcs  "  or  extensions,  as  the  new  parts  of  the 
city  are  called,  is  extraordinarily  spacious  and  noble  ; 
and    nearly   every   street   has    its   double   row   of    plane 

H 


98  FRANCISCO  FERRER 

trees.  It  may  be  noted,  too,  that  another  relief  to  the 
monotony  of  rectangular  street-planning  is  afforded  by 
the  practice  of  cutting  off  the  angles  of  the  four  blocks 
where  two  streets  intersect,  and  thus  converting  the 
intersection  into  a  small  square,  known  as  a  "  chaflan." 

At  about  three  miles  inland  the  gentle  slope  becomes 
steeper,  and  we  soon  find  ourselves  among  the  gullies 
of  some  low  foot-hills,  covered  with  gay  and  often 
fantastic  villas.  Then,  from  the  foot-hills,  the  escarp- 
ments of  Tibidabo  and  Vallvidrera  suddenly  and  almost 
precipitously  rise  to  a  height  of  over  1700  feet  ;  and 
if  we  take  the  funicular  railway  up  to  Tibidabo,  we  find 
in  the  hinterland  nothing  but  a  vast  corrugation  of 
mountain  ranges,  with  the  majestic  Montserrat  towering 
in  the  middle  distance.  Amid  these  ranges,  however, 
there  lurk  several  busy  and  populous  manufacturing 
towns,  such  as  Tarrasa  and  Sabadell,  the  birthplace  of 
Mateo  Morral. 

To  the  north,  the  low  coast-line  runs  off  with  an  east- 
ward curve,  the  mountains  drawing  gradually  nearer  to  it ; 
and  for  some  fifteen  miles  the  beach  is  lined  by  an  almost 
unbroken  string  of  long  villages,  flat  and  unpicturesque, 
seldom  extending  more  than  a  stone's-throw  inland. 
Among  them  are  Mongat,  Masnou,  and  Premia  de  Mar, 
all  scenes  in  the  coming  story.  And  to  the  southward — 
what?  To  the  southward  nothing  but  Montjuich.  Its 
fort-crowned  cliff,  rising  out  of  the  sea  to  a  height  of  750 
feet,  closes  the  vista  from  almost  every  point.  The  poorer 
streets  of  the  old  town  of  Barcelona  crowd  close  up  to  its 
flanks  ;  and  from  distant  Premia,  beyond  the  curving  coast 
and  the  smoke-veil  of  the  city,  it  is  still  seen  frowning  on 
the  horizon.     With  its  sinister  associations,^  it  dominates 

'  There  is  no  shadow  of  doubt  that  after  the  Liceo  outrage  of  1893,  and  the 


MONTJUICH  99 

the  whole  region.  As  soon  as  the  boy  Ferrer  looked 
abroad  upon  the  world,  he  must  have  seen  Montjuich  on 
the  horizon  of  his  life.  From  the  home  of  his  later  years, 
he  could  not  take  a  hundred  steps  without  its  confronting 
him.  It  loomed  daily  and  hourly  before  the  eyes  of  the 
terror-stricken  villagers  whose  testimony  did  him  to  death. 
In  the  city  thus  sloping  to  the  morning  sun,  between 
the  mountains  and  the  sea,  there  are  more  than  half  a 
million  industrious  but  excitable  and  turbulent  people. 
There  is  great  wealth.  On  the  Paseo  de  Gracia  and  other 
magnificent  avenues,  the  rich  merchants  and  manufacturers 
have  built  themselves  houses  that  in  point  of  expensive- 
ness  would  do  credit  to  Fifth  Avenue,  though  the  Neo- 
Catalan  architecture  is  too  often  hideous  in  its  eccentricity. 
In  the  lower  quarters  of  the  town,  on  the  other  hand,  one 
gathers — what  I  believe  to  be  the  fact — that  there  is  little 
or  no  very  dire  poverty.  The  Catalonian  workman  is 
exceptionally  well  off.  The  climate  of  Barcelona  is  almost 
perfect ;  unemployment  is  rare  ;  food  is  cheap ;  lodging 
not  extravagantly  dear.  The  so-called  Faralelo,  a  noble 
boulevard,  largely  given  up  to  workmen's  cafes,  theatres, 
and  variety-shows,  affords  at  night  the  most  brilliant  and 
animated  spectacle  of  its  kind  I  ever  saw.  For  a  few 
halfpence,  the  workman  can  spend  his  evenings  in  a  really 
palatial  cafe,  debating,  playing  games,  and  imbibing  highly- 
coloured  but  not  too  poisonous  refreshments.  Drunkenness 
is  very  rare  ;  so  are  "  crimes  of  passion."  Some  of  the  low 
streets  between  the  Paralelo  and  the  Rambla  arc,  indeed, 

explosion  in  the  Calle  Cambios  Nuevos  of  three  years  later,  many  prisoners 
were  subjected  to  horrible  tortures  in  Montjuich,  The  details  are  revolting 
beyond  description.  The  least  sickening  of  the  torments,  perhaps,  wSs  that  of 
forcing  the  prisoner  by  lashes  to  keep  constantly  moving  for  30,  40,  50  hours 
on  end— in  one  case,  it  is  said,  for  nine  days.  See  Les  Jnquisiteurs  d'Espagne, 
by  F.  Tarrida  del  Marmol  (Paris,  1897),  Los  Victimarios,  by  Kamon  Sempau 
(Barcelona,  1900),  and  McCabe,  The  Martyrdom  of  Ferrer,  p.  57  and  onwards. 


100  FRANCISCO   FERRER 

among  the  most  sinister  slums  in  Europe.  They  belong, 
however,  to  maritime  rather  than  to  industrial  Barcelona. 
There  is  no  doubt  a  great  deal  of  vice  to  be  seen  on  the 
Paralelo ;  but  there  is  also  no  lack  of  fairly  innocent 
entertainment. 

Beneath  this  smiling  and  prosperous  surface,  however, 
there  lurks  every  form  of  faction  and  discontent.  Of  the 
bomb-plague  I  do  not  speak.  In  its  present  phase,  it  is 
literally  a  plague,  a  disease,  which  has  somehow  settled  on 
Barcelona.  It  is  pretty  certain  that  no  political  party  is 
responsible  for  it,  though  every  party  now  and  then  lays  it 
to  the  charge  of  its  opponents.  The  terrorists  are  in  all 
probability  a  tiny  group — if  a  group  they  can  be  called — 
of  political  Jack-the-Rippers.  Certainly  they  are  not  to 
be  confounded  with  the  Anarchists,  who  form  a  majority 
of  the  working  population,  and  who  have  again  and  again 
disclaimed  and  repudiated  terrorism.  Then  there  are 
Socialists,  comparatively  weak ;  Republicans,  strong 
among  the  middle  classes ;  Catalan  Home  Rulers,  Car- 
lists,  and  other  parties  whose  tenets  it  would  take  too 
long  to  expound.  The  only  party  a  little  hard  to  dis- 
cover is  the  party  which  is  at  all  warmly  attached  to  the 
monarchy  and  the  existing  order  of  things.  This  is  a 
point  which  it  is  only  just  that  we  should  clearly  bear  in 
mind.  In  English-speaking  countries,  we  have  forgotten 
what  it  means  to  have  to  deal  with  any  considerable 
political  party  whose  avowed  aim  is  revolution,  the  over- 
throw of  the  whole  frame  of  government.  In  Catalonia, 
on  the  other  hand,  the  existing  order,  instead  of  being 
"  broad-based  upon  the  people's  will,"  has  only  a  minority 
in  its  favour,  and  rests  upon  military  force,  aided  by  the 
dissensions  of  the  disaffected  majority.  One  cannot  but 
wonder  what  forms  our  own  political  life  would  assume  if 


THE   CONGREGATIONS  101 

the  party  or  parties  of  progress  were  a  party  or  parties 
of  open  sedition. 

And  dotted  everywhere — facing  us  at  every  turn — 
throughout  this  city  of  modern  industrialism,  are  monas- 
teries, convents,  reh'gious  houses  of  one  sort  or  another, 
some  humble  and  unpretending  enough,  but  many  of  them 
vast  and  splendid.  Some  are  devoted  to  education,  others 
to  works  of  charity  ;  but  none,  it  would  seem,  has  succeeded 
in  earning  the  respect,  much  less  the  love,  of  the  working 
classes,  who  accuse  the  "  frailes  "  of  humiliating  and  ex- 
ploiting the  children  they  profess  to  teach  and  train. 
Exempt  from  taxation,  some  of  the  religious  houses  com- 
pete in  the  production  of  certain  commodities  ;  and  though 
there  are  conflicting  accounts  as  to  the  extent  of  this 
competition,  there  is  no  doubt  that  it  bulks  large  in  th  e 
popular  view. 

Testimonies  to  the  abounding  unpopularity  of  the 
religious  orders  meet  us  on  every  hand.  For  instance, 
"A  Spanish  Liberal"  writes  as  follows  to  the  Times  of 
August  8,  1910  : — 

The  congregations  pay  no  territorial  contribution. 
The  magnificent  properties  of  the  monks  pay  no  rates 
whatever,  and  in  consequence  of  this  the  Spanish  citizen 
living  in  their  neighbourhood  has  to  pay  an  exorbitant 
rent.  Neither  do  these  religious  communities  pay  the 
industrial  tax  or  the  personal  tax.  At  the  same  time, 
their  inmates  arc  exempt  from  military  service,  and  from 
the  redemption  fee  of  £()0  in  lieu  of  military  service  which 
is  exacted  from  other  Spanish  citizens. 

The  result  of  this  is  that  in  certain  towns  of  special 
industries  the  workers,  especially  the  women,  cannot  live. 
The  elaborate  working  in  linen,  which  formerly  gave  so 
much  employment  to  the  wives  and  daughters  of  the 
wage-earners,  has  passed  entirely  into  the  hands  of  the 


102  FRANCISCO   FERRER 

convents.  The  workwomen  of  Saragossa  were  dying  of 
hunger  last  year,  while  in  the  convents  an  elaborate 
trousseau  valued  at  many  thousands  of  dollars  was  being 
worked.  Such  facts  as  these  explain  the  peculiar  vindic- 
tiveness  of  the  women  against  the  religious  houses — a 
vindictiveness  seen  in  its  full  extent  during  the  "tragic 
week  "  of  Barcelona  last  year. 

The  male  worker  suffers  also  by  the  competing  indus- 
tries of  the  monks.  This  is  especially  true  in  the  matter 
of  teaching.  Whilst  a  religious  college  pays  no  tax,  a 
secular  school  is  compelled  to  pay  its  tax  six  months  in 
advance.    A  private  teacher  can  scarcely  find  occupation. 

To  the  same  effect  writes  Mr.  Rafael  Shaw,  in  his  very 
well-informed  book  Spain  from  Within  (Chapter  V.) — 

The  economic  question  bulks  largely  among  the 
causes  of  the  popular  hostility  to  the  Religious  Orders, 
and  if  only  half  the  complaints,  generally  made  are  based 
on  fact,  the  people  have  reason  on  their  side. 

Formerly,  say  the  women,  it  was  easy  to  obtain  a 
day's  wage  by  washing  in  well-to-do  houses,  and  a  laun- 
dress could  make  a  decent  living.  Now,  in  every  town  of 
any  importance  there  are  one  or  more  convents,  called 
"Domestic  Colleges,"  where  orphans  or  servants  out  of 
place  are  received,  and  these  girls  repay  the  nuns  for  their 
board  and  lodging  by  doing  laundry-work  for  rich  Catholic 
families.  If  the  girls  were  allowed  to  keep  even  a  portion 
of  what  they  earn,  the  women  say  that  they  would  not 
feel  the  system  to  be  so  unjust.  But  they  declare  that 
this  is  not  the  case.  Whatever  is  paid  goes  to  the  nuns, 
and  as  they,  having  no  taxes  or  wages  to  pay,  can  under- 
sell the  laundresses,  who  are  called  upon  to  provide  both 
charges,  the  lay  laundry  trade  is  steadily  declining, 
although  the  quality  of  the  work  is  on  a  par  with  that 
done  in  the  convents. 

The  nuns  teach  their  protegees  every  class  of  needle- 
work, lace-making,  and  a  kind  of  embroidery,  or  net-work, 


ILLEGITIMATE  COMPETITION    103 

which  is  largely  used  for  priests'  vestments,  altar-cloths, 
etc.  This  competition  ...  is  felt  in  every  part  of  Spain. 
.  .  .  It  is  increasingly  difficult  to  obtain  employment  of 
this  kind  at  any  price,  owing  to  the  quantity  done  in  the 
convents  and  the  reduced  prices  at  which  the  nuns  under- 
take it.  .  .  . 

A  baker  told  me  :  "  The  frailes  always  demand  all  the 
bread  we  put  by  for  the  poor.  We  would  prefer  to  give 
it  direct  to  the  poor  ourselves,  for  we  do  not  feel  sure  how 
much  of  it  they  get  from  the  frailes,  whose  housekeepers 
are  great  hands  at  making  [sweet  cakes  and  patisserie,  the 
foundation  of  which  is  generally  finely  grated  stale  bread] 
for  sale  to  good  Catholic  families.  These  good  Catholic 
families  prefer  to  buy  their  pas  teles  cheap  from  the  friars, 
who  say  that  they  are  sold  for  the  good  of  the  Church. 
We  do  not  care  to  give  our  stale  bread  to  be  used  in 
injuring  the  trade  of  our  companions  the  confectioners  ; 
for  the  friars,  having  no  taxes  to  pay,  can  naturally  under- 
sell ordinary  tradesmen,  and  all  the  more  when  they  get 
the  bread  for  their  confectionery  free.  But  if  we  said  that 
we  wished  to  give  our  bread  to  our  own  acquaintances 
among  the  poor,  the  Jesuits  would  ruin  us.  They  would 
tell  all  their  clients  that  wc  were  bad  men  and  enemies  of 
the  Church,  and  we  should  lose  all  our  trade.  We  know 
this  by  experience."  .  .  . 

For  years  past  [Mr.  Shaw  continues]  I  have  noticed 
that  no  member  of  the  working  classes  salutes  a  priest  or 
friar  in  the  streets.  Day  after  day  one  summer  I  saw  the 
same  priests  taking  their  afternoon  walk  along  the  same 
byway,  where  the  same  artizans,  to  the  number  of  twenty 
or  thirty,  watched  the  "  long  skirts "  from  the  doors  of 
their  workshops.  I  never  saw  an  artizan  greet  a  priest  or 
friar,  or  vice  versa.  The  flowing  robes  of  the  ecclesiastics 
swept  against  the  patched  garments  of  the  workmen,  but 
no  glance  was  exchanged.  The  priests  kept  their  eyes 
bent  on  the  ground,  one  hand  grasping  the  skirts  and  the 
other  pressed  on  the  breast,  a  typical  attitude,  which  is 


104  FRANCISCO   FERRER 

jeered  at  by  the  poor  as  "canting."  The  workmen  kept 
their  eyes  fixed  on  the  work  on  which  they  were  engaged. 
It  is  impossible  to  imagine  anything  more  hostile  than  the 
silent  defiance  of  the  men,  as  they  turned  to  watch  the 
"  long  skirts  "  out  of  sight.  ..."  I  hate  to  see  them,"  one 
of  the  men  said  to  me ;  "  they  are  the  ruin  of  us  and  our 
country."  What  made  it  the  more  significant  was  that 
these  same  workmen  had  a  pleasant  word  of  greeting  for 
every  lay  person,  man  or  woman,  acquaintance  or  stranger, 
who  passed  by  them. 

It  would  be  easy  to  multiply  testimonies  to  the  same 
effect ;  but  one  more  will  probably  suffice.  It  comes  from 
no  less  an  authority  than  General  Weyler,  who,  on  assum- 
ing office  as  Captain-General  of  Catalonia  in  November 
1909,  wrote  as  follows: — ^ 

Religion  merits  all  our  respect,  but  one  cannot  hide  the 
fact  that  there  are  too  many  convents.  These  have  given 
rise  to  a  very  dangerous  and  serious  economic  problem, 
as,  in  all  branches  of  industry,  they  are  great  competitors 
with  small  factory -owners  and  workmen.  . .  .  This  explains 
the  anger  and  hatred  of  the  working  classes,  and  it  is 
necessary  to  remedy  the  abuse.  .  .  .  Religion  will  gain 
considerably  if  the  rancour,  complaint,  and  miseries  caused 
by  the  excessive  number  of  religious  orders  be  removed. 

This  seems  pretty  strong  testimony  to  the  reality  of 
the  evil ;  but  there  may  no  doubt  be  a  good  deal  to  be 
said  on  the  other  side.  It  would  be  absurd  to  suppose 
that  the  congregations  cannot  point  to  some  real  benefits 
conferred  by  some  of  them  on  the  community.  It  is  not 
my  business  to  go  into  these  questions.  I  am  attempting 
to  exhibit  the  state  of  mind  of  the  populace  of  Barcelona 
not  to  hold  the  balance  between  the  populace  and  the 
orders.  The  question  that  here  concerns  us  is  simply 
*  Quoted  by  G.  H.  B.  Ward,  T/ie  Tnith  about  Spain,  p.  lOO. 


HATRED   OF  CONVENTS  105 

this :  Was  there  in  Barcelona  a  sufficient   body  of  anti- 
monastic  feeling  to  render  it  probable  that,  in  any  violent 
popular  outbreak,  the  mob  would  tend  of  its  own  accord, 
and  without  any  special  "  canalization  "  of  its  energies,  to 
wreak  its  wrath   on  the  religious   houses?     I  think   the 
above  extracts  are  sufficient  to  show  that  there  is  nothing 
in  the  least  surprising  in  the  turn  taken  by  the  popular 
frenzy.     The   hatred   of  the   congregations,    though   not 
confined  to  Barcelona  or  to  Catalonia,  was,  and  had  been 
for  many  years,  particularly  strong  in  that  great  industrial 
community.      To  attribute  the  strength  of  the  feeling  to 
the  existence  of  Ferrer's  school,  or  the  schools  under  his 
influence,   is    the    merest    nonsense.      His    work    as    an 
educator  lasted  only  five  years  (1901-1906),  and  his  school 
was  so  small  that  he  cannot  have  had  more  than  between 
200   and   300  children    through  his   hands   in    all.^     His 
influence,  rating  it  at  the  very  highest,  must  have  been  the 
merest  drop  in  the   bucket.     No   attempt  was  made  to 
show  that  any  individual  rioter  had  been  a  pupil  of  his. 
The  plain  fact  is  that  Ferrer  himself  and  his  schools,  far 
from  being  a  cause  of  the  anti-clericalism  that  sacked  the 
convents,  must  be  ranked  among  the  effects  or  products 
of  that   passion,  which  had    been  strong  in  the  Catalan 
populace  before  the  Escuela  Moderna  was  dreamt  of.     We 
shall  see,  when  we  come  to  look  into  the  origin  of  the  riots, 
that  there  were  special  features  in  the  case  which  embit- 
tered popular  feeling  against  the  orders.     But  even  apart 
from  any  special  and  momentary  grounds  for  anger,  there 
was   always   sufficient    distrust    and    resentment    in   the 
popular  breast  to  render  it  highly  probable  that,  in  any 

*  The  total  numbers  for  the  first  four  years  were  70,  82,  114,  126— in  all, 
392.  But  as  many  children  must  reappear  in  more  than  one  of  these  enumera- 
tions, and  some,  no  doubt,  in  all,  it  may  pretty  safely  be  said  that  the  whole 
number  of  his  pupils  did  not  exceed  300. 


106  FRANCISCO   FERRER 

outburst  of  lawlessness,  the  fraiks  would  be  the  first  to 
suffer. 

Among  the  reasons  why  the  people  looked  askance  at 
the  congregations,  there  is  one  which  has  yet  to  be  men- 
tioned. The  secrecy  of  the  conventual  life  gives  scope  for 
strange  imaginings  as  to  what  passes  behind  the  impene- 
trable walls.  "Tribunals,  authorities,  laws,  processes, 
all  recoil  dismayed  from  the  gates  of  a  monastic  house, 
which  is  independent  of  every  secular  power."  So  says 
♦'  Fray  Gerundio,"  author  of  a  book  named  El  Tormento 
en  los  Cojiventos,  which  was  prominently  displayed  on  every 
kiosk  in  Barcelona  during  the  summer  and  autumn  of  last 
year.  The  book  is  no  mere  catchpenny  libel,  but  a 
serious  indictment,  though  not,  I  think,  a  very  damaging 
one.  It  seems,  indeed,  rather  remarkable  that  a  stronger 
case  cannot  be  produced,  when  we  reflect  that  there  are  in 
Spain  some  4000  monastic  houses,^  each  a  little  autocracy 
in  which  there  is  no  efficient  check  upon  fanaticism  and 
other  dehumanizing,  passions.  But,  again,  it  is  no  part  of 
my  business  to  investigate  the  actual  facts  of  convent  life. 
It  is  sufficient  to  point  out  that  there  undoubtedly  exists 
in  Spain  a  very  strong  belief  that  the  religious  houses,  and 
especially  the  nunneries,  are  the  scene  of  dire  penitential 
horrors.  The  morbid  curiosity  begotten  of  this  belief  was 
certainly  not  the  least  among  the  motives  of  the  Barcelona 
rioters. 

Behind  and  beneath  all  definite  suspicions  and  resent- 
ments, however,  there  doubtless  lies  the  feeling  that  this 
monastic  host,  with  its  hoarded  wealth,  is  in  active  alliance 

*  There  seem  to  be  no  trustworthy  statistics  as  to  the  religious  houses. 
"  Fray  Gerundio,"  who  professes  to  give  the  numbers  for  each  province, 
places  the  total  in  1908  at  4430,  of  which  845  were  in  Catalonia.  An 
apparently  careful  enumeration  undertaken  in  1910  placed  the  number  of 
nunneries  at  3007  and  of  monkeries  at  794;  total  3801.  The  total  number 
of  nuns  was  given  in  1910  as  41,526,  while  the  total  of  monks  was  12,801. 


OUTSIDE  THE   LAW  107 

with  capitalism,  militarism,  and  all  the  enemies  of  social 
justice,  as  it  hovers  before  the  exalted  imagination  of  the 
Catalan  workman.  He  sees  in  the  congregations  an  ideal 
which  he  rejects  with  loathing,  ensconsed  behind  high- 
piled  bastions  of  privilege.  They  are,  as  a  matter  of  fact, 
almost  entirely  outside  the  law  ;  is  it  wonderful  that  the 
populace,  in  crises  of  revolt,  should  pronounce — and 
execute — sentence  of  outlawry  upon  them  ? 


VIII 

FROM  LONDON  TO  MAS  GERMINAL 

We  have  now  to  trace  the  two  currents  of  events,  one 
private,  the  other  public,  which,  flowing  together  at  the 
fated  hour,  swept  Francisco  Ferrer  to  his  destruction. 

On  April  21,  1909,  Ferrer  and  Soledad  Villafranca 
arrived  in  London.  From  his  boarding-house.  No.  10, 
Montague  Street,  he  at  once  wrote  as  follows  to  his  friend 
Tarrida  del  Marmol : — 

24/4/1909. 
Friend  Fernando, 

We  are  here  for  a  time  to  rest.  We  have  had 
so  much  to  do  lately  that  we  do  not  wish  to  see  anybody 
just  yet.  Naturally,  that  does  not  apply  to  you.  Do  not 
make  a  special  journey  to  see  us.  Merely  drop  in  on  us, 
when  you  come  to  the  city,  at  9,  or  i,  or  6  o'clock,  and  we 
will  have  a  chat. 

Kind  regards,  etc., 

F.  Ferrer. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  he  lived  very  quietly,  occupying 
himself,  under  the  guidance  of  Mr.  William  Heaford,  in 
looking  for  English  books  to  be  added  to  the  library 
of  the  Escuela  Moderna.  The  books  which  specially 
interested  him  were  those  issued  by  the  Moral  Education 
League.  He  was  under  the  observation  of  the  police, 
but   the   only  thing  that  seems   to  be   recorded   against 


FERRER  IN   HYDE  PARK        109 

him  is  that  he  attended  the  Labour  Day  demonstration 
in  Hyde  Park.  On  that  point,  Professor  del  Marmol 
writes  to  me — 

"Ferrer  and  Soledad  Villafranca  passed  the  whole  of 
that  day,  May  i,  in  my  company.  We  lunched  together 
at  their  boarding-house,  and  then  we  went  to  Hyde  Park. 
I  remember  that  I  made  a  speech  at  the  International 
Platform,  while  Ferrer  and  Soledad  sat  on  the  grass  hard 
by.  Then  I  presented  them  to  some  friends,  among 
others  to  Madame  Kropotkin  and  to  Captain  Petavel. 
But  neither  Ferrer  nor  Soledad  took  any  active  part  in 
any  meeting  or  demonstration.  They  attended  only  one 
other  meeting  during  their  stay  in  London,  and  that  was 
at  a  club  in  Charlotte  Street,  where  I  delivered  a  lecture 
on  '  The  Solar  System.' " 

A  letter  from  Mile.  Sasha  Kropotkin  to  the  Westminster 
Gazette  of  October  21,  1909,  gives  us  an  interesting 
glimpse  of  him  at  this  time.     Mile.  Kropotkin  writes — 

"Sr.  Ferrer  was  here  at  the  time  of  the  Hyde  Park 
Budget  (?)  Demonstration,  and  he  and  Sefiora  Ferrer 
[Soledad  Villafranca]  lunched  at  our  house  a  few  days 
later.  They  had  not  then  the  vaguest  notion  of  what  was 
to  occur  at  Barcelona.  Sr.  Ferrer  spoke  of  the  general 
situation  in  Spain,  of  his  work,  of  the  fearful  Catholic 
reaction  which  reigned  in  the  country  ;  but  neither  he  nor 
his  wife  had  any  idea  of  returning  to  Spain  at  that  time. 
Senora  Ferrer  even  offered  to  teach  me  Spanish,  as  they 
intended  to  remain  in  London  for  some  time.  Their 
plan  was  to  go  to  some  quiet  English  seaside  place  after 
that.  .  .  .  Any  one  who  has  met  Sr.  Ferrer  cannot  fail  to 
have  felt  the  peculiar  charm  of  his  gentle  personah"ty  and 
courteous  manners.  His  was  certainly  the  mind  of  an 
active  thinker  rather  than  of  a  militant  propagandist." 


110  FRANCISCO  FERRER 

So  weeks  passed  quietly  away.  On  June  9  he  wrote 
from  Montague  Street  to  Charles  Albert  in  Paris,  saying 
that  his  stay  in  London  was  indefinite,  and  indicating  that 
it  would  probably  outlast  the  month.  He  then  went 
on :  "  As  for  speaking  of  the  League  [for  Rational 
Education]  in  the  Ecole  Renovee,  that  is  a  thing  that 
must  absolutely  be  done.  I  insist  that  both  are  directed 
to  the  same  end ;  otherwise  I  should  not  have  founded 
them.  It  is  one  thing  to  keep  the  two  organizations  quite 
independent,  and  another  thing  to  let  the  Review  appear 
to  ignore  the  League.  ...  I  want  you  yourself  to  write 
the  article  on  the  League  which  must  appear  in  the 
Review.  Perhaps  you  ought  to  speak  in  it  of  the  coming 
assembly  of  the  League,  which  I  now  consider  very 
necessary,  as  I  fancy  we  shall  have  to  propose  several 
modifications  in  the  statutes."  ^  Thus  we  find  him,  on 
June  9,  intent,  as  ever,  on  his  educational  work,  and 
laying  plans  for  a  future  which  he  evidently  pictures  as 
quite  normal  and  undisturbed. 

Two  days  later,  however,  there  came  an  unexpected 
and  melancholy  disturbance.  On  June  11,  he  wrote  from 
Montague  Street  to  the  same  correspondent — 

Friday  I1/6/1909. 

My  dear  Friend, 

On  account  of  serious  illness  in  our  home,  we 
are  obliged  to  return  at  once  to  Spain.  I  should  be  sorry 
to  pass  through  Paris  without  seeing  you.  We  shall 
arrive  to-morrow  evening,  and  go  to  the  Hotel  de  la 
Terrasse,  Passage  Jouffroy,  Boulevard  Montmartre.  If 
you  are  free  at  nine,  we  shall  be  on  the  terrace  of  the 
Cafe  de  Madrid,  Boulevard  Montmartre.  We  shall  start 
for  Spain  on  Sunday  or  on  Monday  at  latest. 

Cordially  yours, 

F.  Ferrer. 

'  Letter  quoted  in  full  in  Un  Martyr  des  Pritres^  p.  33. 


DEATH   OF  LA  YET  A  111 

On  the  same  day,  he  wrote  to  the  same  effect  to 
Tarrida  del  Marmol — 

Friday,  11/6/1909. 

Dear  Fernando, 

We  hear  from  Mongat  that  my  brother's  wife 
and  my  niece  are  seriously  ill.  We  leave  by  the  first 
train  to-morrow,  and  shall  not  be  able  to  bid  you  all  good- 
bye. The  supper  must  be  postponed  until  the  next  time. 
I  will  send  you  news  from  Mongat.  Cordial  greetings  to 
all  from  Soledad  and  yours, 

F.  Ferrer. 

Of  the  authenticity  of  these  letters  there  is  not  a  shadow 
of  doubt ;  and  the  reality  of  the  reason  alleged  for  his 
return  to  Spain  is  only  too  sadly  certain.  Moreover,  no 
human  foresight  could  at  this  date,  or  for  a  month  later, 
have  divined  the  probability  of  any  disturbance  in  Barce- 
lona. Yet  the  first  piece  of  "  evidence "  cited  in  the 
Report  of  the  Examining  Commandant,  read  at  his  trial, 
was  that  of  the  Chief  of  the  Barcelona  police,  who  found 
it  a  "  strange  coincidence  "  that  he  should  have  re-appeared 
in  Spain  "  at  the  moment  when  the  troubles  were  about 
to  break  out." 

Ferrer  spent  Sunday  in  Paris,  and  left  for  home  on 
the  morning  of  Monday  the  14th.  On  the  17th  he  wrote 
from  Mas  Germinal  to  Charles  Laisant,  "  Here  we  are 
installed,  finding  our  sister-in-law  out  of  danger,  but  not 
so  our  niece,  who  remains  in  a  very  critical  condition." 
Poor  little  Layeta  (Eulalia),  born  to  Jos^  Ferrer  in  far-off 
Bendigo,  died  on  the  19th,  aged  eight  years. 

For  what  followed  we  may  turn  to  a  letter  from  Ferrer 
to  William  Heaford  written  from  the  Carcel  Celular  of 
Barcelona  less  than  a  week  before  his  trial — 

.  ,  .  There  I  was  quietly  at  Mongat,  from  the  middle 


112  FRANCISCO  FERRER 

of  June,  with  my  wife,  tending  our  poor  sister-in-law  who 
was  very  much  broken  by  her  own  illness  and  the  loss 
of  her  daughter.  I  diverted  my  mind,  and  passed,  I  must 
own,  some  delightful  moments,  in  reading  the  six  English 
books  I  had  brought  with  me  from  London.  I  think  so 
well  of  them  that  I  have  resolved  to  have  them  translated 
into  Spanish,  and  to  publish  them,  of  course  after  obtain- 
ing authorization.  All  the  six,  I  take  it,  are  recommended 
by  the  Instruction  Morales  Liguef  I  am  not  quite  clear 
as  to  its  name.  .  .  .  Two  in  particular  have  charmed  me  : 

Children  s  Magic    Garden,    by   Alice  ?   and   Magic 

Garden's  Childhood.  They  can  be  published  in  Spanish 
with  the  single  suppression  of  a  tale  about  Santa  Claus 
which  I  do  not  consider  good  for  children.  Then  the  first 
and  second  series  of  Gould's  Morals  Legons,  which  are  also 
very  good,  except  where  he  speaks  of  Christ,  very  little, 
which  I  should  simply  suppress.  .  .  .  Then  come  two 
volumes,  intended  for  teachers,  of  which  I  do  not  quite 
recall  the  titles.  The  Teacher's  Handbook  of  Moral's 
Leqons  ?  One  is  by  Mr.  Walldegrave  ? — admirable  this 
one,  and  resting  on  a  large  philosophic  basis.  To  be 
published  without  a  single  note.  The  other  is  by  Mr. 
Reid,  too  English  in  its  character,  but  fitted  for  publica- 
tion with  a  good  many  editorial  notes. 

(Where  are  they  now,  these  dear  books,  annotated 
by  me,  and  ready  for  translation — where  are  they  after 
the  searches  and  seizures  at  Mas  Germinal  ?  I  trust  I 
shall  find  them  again  some  day.)  ^ 

From  Mongat  I  went  as  a  rule  once  a  week  to  Barce- 
lona, to  see  to  my  publishing-house,  Cortes  596,  which 
gives  me  a  good  deal  of  trouble,  absorbing  almost  all  my 

1  The  books  to  which  he  refers  are  The  Garden  of  Childhood  and  The 
Magic  Gardefi,  both  by  Miss  Alice  M.  Chesterton ;  A  Teacher's  Handbook  of 
Moral  Lessons,  by  A.  J.  Waldegrave ;  A  Manual  of  Moral  Instruction,  by 
James  Reid,  M.A.  All  these  are  issued  by  the  Moral  Education  League, 
6,  York  Buildings,  Adelphi,  London,  W.C.  The  Children's  Book  of  Moral 
Lessons,  by  F.  J.  Gould,  is  published  by  Watts  and  Co.,  17,  Johnson's  Court, 
Fleet  Street. 


PUBLISHING   PROJECTS  113 

income,  of  which,  however,  I  do  not  complain,  for  how 
could  I  employ  the  money  better  than  in  publishing  the 
books  I  have  published,  and  those  I  intend  to  publish 
in  the  future,  such  as  the  six  I  have  just  mentioned  ?  Is 
there  any  greater  pleasure  in  life  than  that  of  procuring 
for  others  the  means  of  developing  their  intelligence  in 
the  direction  of  the  good  and  the  beautiful,  of  peace  and 
solidarity  ?  Possessed  by  this  idea,  and  determined  to 
keep  up  the  Ptiblicaciones  de  la  Esaiela  Moderna,  in  spite 
of  all  the  worry  and  annoyance  that  enemies  (and  some- 
times, alas !  friends  as  well)  procure  me,  I  had  decided 
upon  the  publication  of  an  illustrated  edition  of  P. 
Kropotkin's  last  book  La  Grande  Revolutiofi  (1789-1793).^ 
For  business  reasons,  it  was  necessary  that  this  publica- 
tion should  take  place  immediately  after  that  of  V Homme 
et  la  Terre,  by  Reclus,  which  was  to  be  completed  in 
August. 

The  remainder  of  this  letter  will  be  found  in  its  due 
place  (Chapter  XIV.).  The  above  extract  is  interesting, 
not  only  for  its  account  of  Ferrer's  occupations,  but  for 
the  glimpse  it  gives  into  what  may  be  called  the  puritanic, 
not  to  say  pedantic,  rationalism  of  his  habit  of  thought. 

It  may  be  said  that  Ferrer's  own  retrospect  of  his 
occupations,  written  at  a  time  when  he  knew  that  his 
neck  was  in  danger,  cannot  be  accepted  as  evidence. 
Even  the  corroboration  of  his  friends  is  subject  to  dis- 
count.    But  mark  this !     On   July  7,  many  days  before 

'  Mile.  Kropotkin  states  in  the  IVestminster  Gazctlc  that  one  of  the 
accusations  against  Ferrer  was  that  he  had  "  sent  to  Barcelona  900  francs  for 
La  Grande  /ih/olution,^^  and  that  this  was  interpreted  as  meaning  that  he 
financed  the  riots  I  I  do  not  know  where  this  accusation  was  made ;  it  is 
not  mentioned  in  the  Process ;  but  the  misunderstanding  is  not  in  itself 
improbable.  Thus  an  article  on  "Le  Dynamisme  Atomique"  was  mistaken 
by  the  Spanish  police  for  a  treatise  on  dynamite  ;  and  a  translation  of  I'oe's 
Raven  was  regarded  as  an  anarchistic  production  because  of  the  mention  of 
the  •'  bust  of  Pallas  just  above  my  chamber  door " — Pallas  being  the  name 
of  the  man  who  threw  a  bomb  at  Marshal  Martinez  Campos  in  1893. 


114  FRANCISCO  FERRER 

any  human  foresight  could  have   anticipated   the   revolt, 
Ferrer  wrote  from  Mas  Germinal  to  Alfred  Naquet — 

...  I  might  tell  you,  too,  of  the  comic  surveillance 
to  which  I  am  subjected  by  the  authorities  at  Barcelona, 
who  every  day  send  a  pareja  de  civiles  (pair  of  gendarmes) 
to  take  count  of  my  comings  and  goings,  and  policemen 
who  attend  me  to  the  station  and  accompany  me  wher- 
ever I  go.  But  I  attach  no  importance  to  this,  accustomed 
as  I  am  to  it  ever  since  my  Madrid  trial. 

The  fact  that  he  was  under  surveillance  was  confirmed 
at  his  trial ;  so  that  a  false  account  of  his  occupations 
could  easily  have  been  contradicted.  As  no  such  attempt 
was  made,  there  is  not  the  slightest  reason  to  doubt  that 
in  his  letter  to  Heaford,  and  several  other  letters  to 
precisely  the  same  effect,  he  was  telling  the  simple  truth. 

An  article  by  Sr.  Renato  Rugieres  in  a  London  paper, 
Freedom^  not  only  confirms  on  almost  every  point  Ferrer's 
own  account  of  his  occupations  during  the  weeks  before 
the  outbreak,  but  gives  us  a  vivid  glimpse  of  Ferrer  and 
his  family  pursuing  their  quiet  way  undisturbed  by  any 
premonitions  of  disaster.  I  am  permitted  to  extract  the 
substance  of  Sr.  Rugieres'  narrative.  His  picture  of  the 
doomed  household  on  one  of  the  last  days  of  peace 
vouchsafed  to  it  by  destiny  is,  I  think,  very  human  and 
touching. 


'&• 


The  last  long  chat  I  had  with  him  was  in  Mas  Ger- 
minal, near  Mongat,  on  July  3,  1909,  viz.  some  days  before 
the  general  strike  protesting  against  the  war. 

I  had  received  a  letter  inviting  me  to  spend  a  day  with 
him.  I  well  remember  him.  It  seems  as  though  I  see 
him  now  at  the  Mongat  station  waiting  for  me.  It  was 
ten  o'clock.     He  was  wearing  a  simple  linen  suit  and  a 


AT   HOME   AT   MONGAT  115 

straw  hat,  like  an  ordinary  farmer.  He  received  me  with 
his  accustomed  amiability,  and  embraced  me  very  affec- 
tionately. On  the  road  to  Mas  Germinal  he  spoke  to  me 
about  his  stay  at  his  brother's. 

"You  know,"  he  said,  "that  my  dear  niece  died,  and 
on  account  of  her  illness  I  am  here.  I  intended  to  stay 
in  London  some  months  more  in  order  to  improve  my 
knowledge  of  the  English  language,  and  search  for  some- 
thing good  and  useful  for  our  schools.  In  England  there 
are  many  thinkers,  and  although  their  writings  are  intended 
for  their  own  people,  we  can  use  them  by  making  a  few 
explanations  in  the  translations  of  them.  When  we  reach 
home,  I  will  show  you  a  book  I  have  already  read,  and  I 
should  like  to  publish  it.  Have  the  kindness  to  translate 
it  into  Spanish  if  you  consider  it  in  accordance  with  our 
aims.  The  passages  marked  with  blue  pencil,  and  others 
with  ink,  you  may  take  out ;  they  touch  upon  religious 
matters,  and  our  books  are  for  laic  teaching," 

The  good  man  who  politely  begged  for  my  opinion 
and  my  help  was  helping  me  by  giving  me  that  work  of 
translation ! 

The  "  dangerous  "  book,  which  I  had  no  time  to  finish 
before  I  left  Barcelona,  was  The  Children's  Book  of  Moral 
Lessons,  by  Gould,  printed  by  a  publishing  firm  in  Fleet 
Street,  London.  English  people  !  should  know  the  book, 
so  that  they  may  be  able  to  judge  the  "  terrible  evil " 
the  educationist  Ferrer  was  doing  in  the  land  of  Maria 
Santi'sima. 

On  arriving  at  the  farm,  Mas  Germinal,  I  met  Mrs. 
Ferrer,  also  wearing  the  plain  country  dress,  and  manag- 
ing the  house ;  in  the  garden  I  encountered  Ferrer's 
brother  bending  over  his  beloved  soil,  gathering  his  straw- 
berries to  carry  to  Barcelona  market  early  next  morning ; 
his  wife  was  also  busily  employed.  Everybody  was  pro- 
ducing something,  and  I  wondered  if  the  martyr  was 
really  rich. 

The  house  was  a  modest  one,  built  in  the  old-fashioned 


116  FRANCISCO   FERRER 

Spanish  style ;   and  the  furniture    was   certainly   neither 
choice  nor  expensive. 

The  happiness  of  those  people,  who,  instead  of  living 
in  the  stupid  manner  of  the  riches  cochons,  preferred  to  be 
useful  to  their  fellows  by  enlightening  their  minds — I 
marvel  now  that  it  could  be  destroyed,  and  in  the  name 
of  justice! 

Before  dinner  we  chatted  incessantly  about  "  our " 
schools — as  he  called  them — encouraging  me  to  take 
charge  of  a  small  one,  to  make  my  initiation,  or  d^but, 
because  I  had  never  made  special  pedagogic  studies. 

"Don't  worry  about  those  trifles,"  he  said  to  me 
kindly ;  "  the  aims  of  the  modern  teacher  ought  to  be  to 
teach  the  child  how  to  use  his  brains ;  to  form  from  every 
child  a  being  with  his  own  will,  able  to  know  by  his  own 
conscience  what  is  wrong  and  what  is  right.  We  do  not 
intend  to  make  lawyers  or  physicians  ;  we  desire  only  to 
give  the  first  instructions,  free — absolutely  free — of  reli- 
gious and  social  prejudices.  It  is  a  fact,"  he  continued, 
"a  thousand  times  proved,  that  the  greatest  educa- 
tionists were  not  professional  teachers.  You  are  still 
young,  and  maybe  some  day  you  will  become  one  of 
my  best  collaborators,"  he  finished  smilingly,  putting  his 
hand  affectionately  on  my  shoulder. 

***** 

At  dinner-time  on  the  table  was  a  big  dish  containing 
rice  and  chicken — chickens  are  cheap  in  the  Spanish 
country — and  Ferrer  said  to  me  laughingly,  "  Let  me  help 
you  well,  because  there  are  no  more  dishes  besides  this 


one." 


The  conversation  during  dinner  was  chiefly  carried  on 
by  his  brother  Jos6,  about  the  farm,  potatoes,  onions,  etc. 
Then  I  understood  quite  well  the  origin  of  the  saying  of 
their  friends.  Francisco's  friends  said,  "  He  is  a  fanatic 
about  his  schools."  Jose's  friends  said,  "  He  is  a  fanatic 
about  his  ground  and  his  potatoes." 

***** 


THE   "AGENT  OF  VIGILANCE  '     117 

In  the  afternoon  we  went  to  the  cultivated  piece  of 
land,  and  again  the  conversation  turned  on  "  our  "  schools. 
Ah !  this  noble  fanatic,  always  thinking  of  the  welfare  of 
others. 

"I  have  an  idea,"  he  said  suddenly,  taking  me  by  the 
arm,  "  merely  a  dream,  even  Soledad — Mrs.  Ferrer — does 
not  know  it.  You  know,"  he  added,  "that  I  intend  to 
extend  my  publishing  business,  and  to  establish  in  Barce- 
lona another  '  Modern  School,'  better  than  that  which  was 
closed  years  ago,  furnished  with  the  most  modern  material, 
and  with  a  staff  who  have  improved  their  knowledge  in 
Paris.  Afterwards,  and  this  is  my  dream,  I  should  like  to 
build  here  a  country  house,  where  the  teachers  of  our 
schools  could  enjoy  their  last  years.  Do  you  think  the 
place  is  nice?  Look  at  these  beautiful  views,  the  trees, 
the  sea,  and  over  all  plenty  of  sun.  It  is  only  a  dream," 
he  said  sadly  ;  "  I  do  not  know  if  it  will  be  possible  or  not. 
One  finds  so  many  difficulties  in  carrying  out  educational 
work  in  a  country  where  the  priests  are  in  power ! " 

At  five  o'clock  we  entered  the  cottage  to  take  tea,  an 
English  tea,  which  reminded  me  of  my  first  day  in  this 
country  last  year. 

The  brother  Jose  and  his  wife  were  in  Australia  for 
many  years,  and  therefore  they  speak  English  like  natives. 
Mrs.  Ferrer — Soledad — was  trying  to  compete  with  me  in 
my  broken  pronunciation  of  English,  and  they  were  all 
very  much  amused  at  our  efforts. 

When,  about  six  o'clock,  my  regretted  friend  and  I 
reached  Mongat  station,  he  pointed  out  to  me  a  man  of 
repulsive  appearance  on  the  platform,  and  in  a  low  voice 
and  smiling,  said  to  me,  "  That  is  '  my  man  '  " — this  was 
the  name  he  gave  to  the  secret  policeman  ordered  by  the 
Government  to  follow  him  everywhere  when  in  Spain. 
"  Do  you  not  think  it  is  a  funny  affair  .-*  Happily,  this  one 
is  very  lazy,  and  he  does  not  like  to  disturb  himself  to 
follow  me  up  to  Mas  Germinal.  Only  when  I  go  to 
Barcelona,  he  accompanies  me." 


118  FRANCISCO   FERRER 

The  train  arrived  ;  we  shook  hands,  and  I  entered  a 
second-class  car  of  the  Spanish  "tortoise  railway."  The 
train  departed.  Once  more  my  feelings  of  admiration  and 
love  for  that  noble  man  increased.  In  his  private  life  and 
in  his  public  affairs  he  was  the  same.  He  practised  his 
ideals.     No  wonder  he  lost  his  life  for  them ! 

This  is  the  "  terrible  criminal "  who,  according  to 
Maura's  Cabinet,  was  at  that  time  arranging  the  burning 
of  the  convents  and  the  profanation  of  the  graves ! 

On  every  hand,  then,  we  find  concurrent  testimony  to 
the  perfectly  normal  course  of  Ferrer's  life  during  the  days 
and   weeks   before   the   outbreak.      His   every   action  is 
accounted  for  by  evidence  the  greater  part  of  which  is 
wholly  above  suspicion :  the  evidence  of  letters  written  at 
a  time  when  it  is  inconceivable  that  he  can  have  foreseen 
the  coming  of  trouble.     Documents  written  by  himself 
after  his  arrest,  and  by  others  after  his  execution,  are  in 
themselves,  no  doubt,  more  open  to  suspicion ;  but  though 
this  is  true  in  the  abstract,  it  will  scarcely  weigh  much  with 
us  in  the  concrete,  when  we  find  that  the  prosecution  does 
not  produce,  or  pretend  to  produce,  one  jot  or  tittle  of 
evidence  that  is  in  the  least  degree  inconsistent  with  the 
above  account  of  his  employments.     He  is  known  to  have 
been  shadowed  ;  but  he  is  not  found  in  consultation  with 
any  of  the  leaders  of  the  revolt.     Hundreds  of  domiciliary 
visits  were  made,  and  thousands  of  documents  were  seized  ; 
yet  no  scrap  of  Ferrer's  writing  is  produced  that  has  any 
bearing  on  the  insurrection.     There  is,  in  short,  absolutely 
no   evidence   even  purporting  to  show  that  in  the  days 
preceding  the   outbreak   this   "author   and    chief  of  the 
rebellion  "  raised  a  finger  to  bring  it  about. 


IX 

THE  MELILLA  ADVENTURE 

The  stream  of  private  events,  then,  had  been,  save  for 
the  death  of  little  Layeta,  absolutely  smooth.  We  must 
now  follow  the  converging  and  very  agitated  current  of 
public  affairs. 

Certain  mines  in  the   Riff  region   of  Morocco,    some 
twenty  miles  from  the  Spanish  settlement  of  Melilla,  had 
for  over  a  year  been  worked  intermittently,  and  "under 
precarious  circumstances,"  by  an  inextricably  complicated 
group  of  capitalists,  mainly,  but  not  exclusively,  Spanish. 
A  railway  was  in  course  of  construction  from  Melilla  to 
the  mines  ;  and  at  eight  in  the  morning  on  July  9,  1909 
— nearly  a  month  after  Ferrer  had  left  London  for  Barce- 
lona— a  body  of  Moors  attacked  the  workmen  engaged 
on   the   line  and   killed   three  or  four  Spanish   subjects. 
The  military  governor  of  Melilla,  General  Marina,  at  once 
sallied  forth   to  punish  the   marauders — and  found   him- 
self in  a  hornet's  nest.     A  few  far-sighted  politicians  and 
military  men  professed  to   have  foreseen   some   such  de- 
velopment ;  but  to  the  Spanish  nation  as  a  whole,  the  war 
came  like  thunder  from  a  clear  sky.     "At  Barcelona  in  the 
beginning  of  July,"  says  the  author  oi  La  Semana  Trdgica, 
"  no  one  could  have  imagined  that  before  the  month  was 
out  the  city  would  be  the  scene  of  a  revolutionary  move- 
ment. .  .  .  There  were  no  premonitory  symptoms.     Not  a 


120  FRANCISCO   FERRER 

cloud  gave  warning  of  the  transirion  from  calm  to  tempest." 
Yet  the  Chief  of  Police,  as  we  have  seen,  did  not  hesitate 
to  suggest  that  it  was  a  prevision  of  trouble  that  brought 
Ferrer  home  from  London,  nearly  a  month  earlier. 

The  very  first  news  from  Melilla  made  it  evident  that 
reinforcements,  and  large  reinforcements,  were  urgently 
needed.  Already  on  the  loth,  the  day  after  the  first  shot 
was  fired.  King  Alfonso  signed  a  decree  authorizing  the 
Minister  of  War  to  call  out  the  reservists,  in  such  numbers 
as  he  should  deem  necessary.  Regiments  were  hastily 
brought  up  to  their  full  strength  and  hurried  to  the  coast. 
It  was  natural  that  Barcelona  should  be  one  of  the  chief 
points  of  embarkation  ;  but  had  the  Government  under- 
stood its  temper  they  would  at  all  costs  have  avoided 
employing  it  for  this  purpose. 

In  most  countries  the  working  classes,  on  the  outbreak 
of  a  war,  are  apt,  for  a  time  at  least,  to  yield  to  the  con- 
tagion of  patriotic  fervour,  and  shout  themselves  hoarse 
with  war-cries  and  war-songs.  Why  was  the  sentiment  of 
the  Spanish  working  class  so  utterly  different }  The 
reasons  are  clear,  and  may  be  grouped  under  three  heads. 
In  the  first  place,  the  Anarchism  which  is  dominant  among 
the  Spanish  operatives  is  essentially  an  internationalist  and 
pacificist  doctrine.  Its  very  name  declares  it  anti-patriotic. 
It  regards  the  flag  without  emotion,  and  considers  the 
"national  honour"  a  myth  invented  by  the  soldiers  and 
priests  who  conspire  with  the  capitalists  in  that  process  of 
exploitation  which  they  call  government.  In  this  respect, 
too,  the  views  of  the  Socialists  are  practically  identical  with 
those  of  the  Anarchists.  Both  parties  accept  the  principle 
laid  down  at  the  Congress  of  Stuttgart :  "  Better  insurrec- 
tion than  war."  In  the  second  place,  this  particular  cam- 
paign had  all  the  appearance  of  a  war  of  sheer  aggression. 


A   CAPITALIST  CAMPAIGN        121 

undertaken  at  the  dictation  of  a  group  of  millionaires, 
closely  allied  with  the  Government,  whose  interests  were 
inexpressibly  indifferent  to  the  Spanish  workman.  It  was 
believed,  too,  rightly  or  wrongly,  that  many  of  the  mining 
shares  were  held  by,  or  for,  the  Jesuits.  In  the  third  place 
— and  it  was  this  that  brouG:ht  the  women  in  their 
thousands  into  the  ranks  of  the  protesters — the  incidence 
of  military  service  was  exasperatingly  unjust.  On  the 
one  hand,  the  son  of  the  bourgeois,  who  could  afford  to  pay 
sixty  pounds  for  exemption,  need  not  join  the  army  at  all  ; 
on  the  other  hand,  most  of  the  reservists  now  being  called 
out  were  men  who,  after  two  years  with  the  colours,  had 
been  permitted  to  return  to  civil  life  and  to  marry.  They 
were  now  torn  from  their  wives  and  families,  to  throw 
away  their  lives — as  seemed  only  too  probable — in  an 
ill-omened  war,  undertaken  for  the  enrichment  of  a  few 
financiers.  That  was  how  the  campaign  represented  itself 
to  the  popular  mind,  especially  in  Catalonia. 

On  July  II  (according  to  the  Barcelona  corre- 
spondent of  the  Times)  the  first  detachment  of  1900  troops 
set  sail  from  that  port.  From  the  14th  to  the  iSth 
inclusive,  one  or  more  transports  sailed  every  day.  The 
town  was  alive  with  soldiers  marching  from  station  or 
barracks  to  the  harbour,  most  of  them,  it  would  seem,  local 
levies.  On  the  17th  and  i8th  alone,  more  than  6000  men 
were  embarked.  Only  nine  days  had  passed  since  the 
first  bad  news  had  arrived  from  Africa,  and  the  populace 
had  not  yet  had  time  fully  to  realize  what  this  sudden 
mobilization  meant  for  them.  During  the  week,  therefore, 
though  many  meetings  of  protest  against  the  war  were 
held  in  various  places,  there  were  but  few  disorderly 
incidents,  and  these  of  a  trifling  nature.  But  on  the  i8th, 
which  happened  to  be  a  Sunday,  the  embarkation  of  a 


122  FRANCISCO  FERRER 

local  battalion  was  accompanied  by  scenes  which  showed 
that  the  people  were  awakening  from  their  stupor.  I  con- 
dense the  account  of  the  incident  given  in  Leopold 
Bonafulla's  book  La  Revolucibn  de  Julio. 

The  men  called  to  the  colours,  says  Sr.  BonafuUa,  made 
no  attempt  to  skulk  or  shirk ;  but  among  their  wives, 
mothers,  sisters,  and  friends  there  was  great  indignation 
against  the  Government  which  had  torn  them  from  their 
homes,  and  against  the  inequalities  of  the  law.  Many 
were  going  to  die  in  Africa,  though  it  was  six  years  since 
they  had  entered  on  their  military  service,  four  years  since 
they  had  returned  to  civil  life,  and  three  years  or  more 
since,  with  the  authorization  of  the  Captains-General,  they 
had  married.  In  most  of  the  houses  of  the  reservists 
there  remained  children  without  a  father,  parents  without 
the  son  who  supported  them,  families,  in  short,  given  over 
to  misery  and  hunger.  Meanwhile,  in  the  houses  not  only 
of  the  rich,  but  of  all  who  had  the  means  to  escape  the 
conscription,  young  men  of  twenty  remained  undisturbed 
and  at  their  ease. 

As  the  troops  marched  down  the  Ramblas,  they  were 
accompanied  by  crowds  of  women  and  children,  and  the 
order  of  march  was  soon  broken.  The  soldiers  mingled 
with  the  crowd,  and  many  were  seen  carrying  children 
while  their  wives  carried  their  rifles.  On  the  wharf  there 
was  an  immense  concourse  ;  but  there  was  no  prepared 
manifestation.  The  multitude  had  no  thought  but  to  bid 
farewell  to  sons,  husbands,  and  brothers. 

But  when  it  came  to  the  actual  parting,  to  the  dis- 
entangling of  the  soldiers  from  the  crowd,  there  was  a 
scene  of  great  disorder  and  vehement  protest  on  the  part 
of    the    distracted   women-folk.      There   were    cries   of: 
Throw   down   your  rifles !    Let  the   rich  go !     All   or 


"MUERA   LA   GUERRA!"  123 

none !  Come  home  again  ! "  Many  rifles,  it  is  said,  fell 
into  the  water.  The  confusion  was  so  great  that  several 
desertions  took  place,  soldiers  slipping  away  with  their 
wives  in  steamers  bound  for  foreign  ports. 

I  have  omitted  some  of  the  more  dramatic  details  of 
Sr.  Bonafulla's  narrative,  because  I  do  not  find  them 
confirmed  elsewhere.  But  on  one  point  there  is  complete 
concurrence  of  testimony :  when  some  kind  Catholic  ladies 
boarded  the  transports  dressed  in  their  Sunday  finery,  to 
distribute  scapularies  and  other  appropriate  trifles  to  the 
soldiers,  they  were  shocked  to  find  their  benefactions 
received  with  contumely  and  thrown  into  the  sea. 

Similar  scenes  took  place  in  many  other  parts  of  the 
country.  Two  days  later,  on  Tuesday  the  20th,  the 
entrainment  of  a  body  of  troops  at  the  Southern  Railway 
Station  in  Madrid,  led  to  a  stormy  scene,  even  more  serious 
than  that  which  we  have  just  witnessed  in  Barcelona. 
"  Muera  la  guerra  ! " — "  Down  with  the  war ! " — was  the 
cry  on  every  hand.  Bad  news  from  Melilla,  obviously 
"  doctored  "  news,  and  silence  which  was  interpreted  to 
mean  the  suppression  of  news,  heightened  the  popular 
exasperation.  There  come  reports  of  "  fierce  fighting,"  of 
a  "general  attack  on  the  Spanish  headquarters,"  of  a 
position  defended  by  2000  Spaniards  and  attacked  by 
6000  Moors.  It  is  said  that  a  Holy  War  has  been 
proclaimed,  and  that  many  Moorish  tribes  not  yet  engaged 
are  combining  against  the  Spaniards.  General  Marina  is 
reported  as  saying  that  "  the  military  operations  will  last 
longer  than  was  anticipated  "  and  that  40,000  men  will  be 
required.  Meanwhile  it  is  officially  announced  that  the 
"  nervousness  "  of  the  public  has  no  effect  on  the  ministry, 
"  whose  policy  is  to  pour  troops  into  Melilla  until  the 
resistance  of  the  tribes  is  broken."     Appeals  are  made  to 


124  FRANCISCO  FERRER 

the  Premier,  Sr.  Maura,  to  summon  the  Cortes  ;  and  by 
remaining  obstinately  deaf  to  them,  he  confirms  the 
impression  that  the  youth  and  strength  and  welfare  of 
the  people  is  being  flagitiously  sacrificed  to  the  interests 
of  a  gang  of  capitalists,  with  whom  the  Jesuits  are  in 
secret  partnership.  Obviously  inspired  announcements 
that  "  the  omens  are  entirely  favourable,"  are  of  little 
avail  against  reports  of  battles  between  15,000  Spaniards 
and  16,000  Moors,  which  are  at  best  indecisive,  and  are 
followed  by  the  announcement  that  "  the  Spanish  troops 
have  abandoned  their  advanced  positions."  At  last 
matters  come  to  such  a  pitch  that  on  July  25  a  Reuter's 
telegram  from  Madrid  states  that  the  Minister  of  the 
Interior,  Sr.  La  Cierva,  has  ordered  provincial  Governors 
to  seize  the  editions  of  any  newspapers  publishing  news 
of  the  war,  or  of  the  departure  of  troops,  other  than  that 
contained  in  oflScial  communications.  The  same  order 
applies  to  Madrid. 

And  along  with  high-handed  censorship  of  the  press, 
there  of  course  went  the  suppression  of  public  meetings. 
On  Sunday  the  i8th — the  day  of  the  parting  scenes  at 
Barcelona — the  Socialists  in  Madrid  had  held  a  very  large 
meeting  of  protest  against  the  war.  But  from  that  date 
onwards,  the  Government  began  industriously  to  sit  on 
the  safety-valve,  and  from  all  sides  there  came  reports  of 
meetings  forbidden  or  dispersed  by  the  police. 

In  Barcelona,  on  Friday  the  23rd,  there  was  to  have 
been  a  general  assembly  of  delegates  of  the  Solidaridad 
Obrera,  an  organization  of  which  we  shall  hear  much  in 
the  sequel.  It  is  a  federation  of  working-men's  societies 
of  all  shades  of  opinion,  the  Catalan  counterpart  of  the 
French  Confederation  Generale  du  Travail.  The  Civil 
Governor,  Don  Angel  Ossorio,  decided  to   prohibit   the 


THE   STRIKE   COMMITTEE         125 

meeting  ;  and  it  was  this  prohibition  which  determined  the 
outbreak.  The  idea  of  a  general  strike  as  a  protest  against 
the  war,  had,  indeed,  been  mooted  in  La  Internacional  of 
the  previous  day,  Thursday  the  22nd  ;  but  it  is  doubtful 
whether  it  would  have  taken  shape  had  the  meeting  been 
permitted.  A  Strike  Committee  of  three  was  formed, 
representing  Sindicalists  (Trade  Unionists),  Socialists,  and 
Anarchists.  The  Solidaridad  Obrera,  as  such,  was  not 
represented  ;  nor  was  the  Republican  party.  The  Re- 
publican leaders  were  on  very  bad  terms  with  the  Soli- 
daridad Obrera,  and  for  this  reason,  among  others,  they 
held  back  ;  but  the  rank  and  file  of  the  Republican  party 
heartily  co-operated  in  the  movement.  As  for  the  date 
of  action,  the  choice  lay  between  Monday,  July  26,  only 
three  days  ahead,  and  the  following  Monday,  August  2. 
Some  were  in  favour  of  the  later  date,  which  would 
have  given  time  for  communication  with  distant  parts  of 
Spain,  so  that  the  strike  might  have  been,  not  merely 
Catalan,  but  national.  This  council  was  overborne,  partly, 
perhaps,  by  Catalanist  feeling,  but  mainly,  it  would  seem, 
owing  to  the  Anarchist  impatience  of  organization  and 
concerted  action. 

The  three  members  of  the  Strike  Committee  are  per- 
fectly well  known.  I  have  had  long  talks  with  one  of 
them.  They  scout  the  idea  that  it  would  ever  have 
occurred  to  them  to  take  Ferrer  into  their  confidence.  On 
the  Saturday  and  Sunday  there  was  a  great  deal  of  coming 
and  going,  and  much  communication  by  letter,  between 
workmen  and  workmen's  societies  in  the  various  parts  of 
Barcelona  and  ,in  the  surrounding  townships.  It  is  not 
denied  that  on  these  days  Ferrer  (watched,  remember,  by 
the  police)  stayed  quietly  at  Mas  Germinal.  There  is  no 
evidence  of  any  one  going  to  sec  him  ;  no  evidence  of  his 


126  FRANCISCO  FERRER 

having  written  a  letter  to  any  one  who  was  in  any  way 
connected  with  the  movement ;  no  evidence  that  he  had 
the  smallest  knowledge  of  what  was  brewing. 

The  method  of  action  adopted  by  the  Strike  Committee 
was  that  which  is  known  as  "  the  snowball."  Each  of  the 
three  Committee-men  had  a  lieutenant;  each  lieutenant  was 
to  communicate  with  four  delegates ;  each  delegate  with  four 
others,  and  so  on.  By  this  simple  but  effective  means  the 
call  to  a  general  strike  for  Monday  the  26th  spread  through 
the  manufacturing  towns  of  Catalonia.  It  was  nominally 
to  be  a  pacific  protest,  lasting  twenty-four  hours  only, 
against  the  Moroccan  adventure.  There  were  doubtless 
many  who  hoped  and  believed  that  it  would  not  end  there ; 
but  of  actual  organization  for  anything  further  no  one  has 
discovered  a  trace.  "In  Barcelona,"  says  Don  Angel 
Ossorio,  the  Civil  Governor  before  mentioned,  "  no  one 
prepares  a  revolution,  for  the  simple  reason  that  it  is  always 
prepared.  ...  Of  conspiracy,  of  plan,  of  concerted  action, 
of  casting  of  parts,  of  recruitment,  of  payment,  of  distribu- 
tion of  arms,  of  issuing  of  orders,  in  preparation  for  the 
events  of  the  26th,  I  have  not  heard  a  single  word." 


X 

THE  RED  WEEK 

I  SHALL  now  give  a  rapid  sketch  of  the  course  of  events 
in  Barcelona,  leaving  Ferrer,  for  the  moment,  entirely  out 
of  the  question.  It  is  amazingly  easy  to  tell  the  story  of 
"  the  Revolution  of  July"  without  a  single  reference  to  the 
"  author  and  chief"  of  it. 

In  the  early  hours  of  Monday  the  26th  some  workshops 
and  factories  resumed  work  as  usual ;  but  as  soon  as  the 
news  spread  that  the  strike  was  actually  taking  effect, 
work  was  everywhere  abandoned.  In  some  cases  the 
employers  themselves  ordered  their  workmen  out,  fearing 
to  have  their  windows  broken.  Bands  of  women  went 
from  shop  to  shop  and  from  office  to  office,  demanding  that 
business  should  cease ;  and  they  seem  to  have  met  with 
no  refusals.  Throughout  the  disturbances  women  took  a 
leading  part.  It  was  in  great  measure  a  woman's  revolt ; 
and  the  assertion  that  only,  or  chiefly,  the  worst  class  of 
women  were  concerned,  is  by  no  means  borne  out  by  the 
evidence. 

But — unfortunately,  as  it  proved — there  was  one  large 
body  of  workers  which  refused  to  stand  in  with  the  rest. 
Throughout  the  morning  the  electric  cars  ran  as  usual, 
and  the  servants  of  the  company  declined  to  quit  their 
posts.  Had  they  done  so  quietly,  the  day  might  have 
passed  in  peace,  and  work  might  have  been  resumed  on 


128  FRANCISCO   FERRER 

the  morrow.  It  was  in  stopping  the  tramway  service  that 
the  first  acts  of  violence  took  place.  Cars  were  over- 
turned and  burnt ;  rails  were  torn  up  ;  and  the  police  and 
gendarmes,  in  trying  to  protect  the  car  service,  came  into 
frequent  conflict  with  the  crowd.  There  was  a  good  deal 
of  shooting  on  both  sides,  and  blood  began  to  flow  in 
several  parts  of  the  city.  By  three  in  the  afternoon — some 
accounts  say  by  midday — the  street-car  service  had  entirely 
ceased.  Cabs,  too,  had  been  driven  from  the  streets,  and 
two  at  least  of  the  railways  connecting  Barcelona  with  the 
outside  world  were  put  out  of  action.  It  was  not  till  next 
day  that  the  isolation  of  the  city,  whether  by  rail  or  wire, 
was  rendered  almost  complete. 

How,  in  the  meantime,  were  the  authorities  employing 
themselves  ?  They  were  undoubtedly  in  rather  a  tight 
place.  The  military  garrison  had  been  depleted  by  the 
war,  but  there  remained  eight  hundred  regular  troops  in 
Barcelona.  Of  policemen  there  were  eight  or  nine  hundred, 
and  about  one  thousand  gendarmes,  or  "  Guardias  Civiles," 
a  fine  body  of  men  known  as  the  Benein^'ita,  and  very 
loyal  to  constituted  authority.  These  forces  were  certainly 
none  too  many  to  hold  in  check  a  rebellious  populace  of 
half  a  million,  in  a  city  covering  some  forty  square  miles 
of  ground.  A  considerable  number  had  to  be  immobilized 
for  the  protection  of  arsenals,  military  stores,  etc. ;  and 
the  soldiers,  as  a  whole,  were  not  greatly  to  be  relied  upon, 
as  the  people  insisted  on  cheering  them  wherever  they 
appeared,  and  treating  them  as  the  victims  of  govern- 
mental oppression.  It  is  said — but  I  do  not  think  the 
evidence  is  very  clear — that  in  more  than  one  instance 
soldiers  disobeyed  the  order  to  fire  upon  the  people. 

Under  the  circumstances,  the  best  policy  would 
probably  have  been  one  of  conciliation.     The  disturbance 


THE   STATE   OF   SIEGE  129 

might  have  been  treated  as  a  more  or  less  legitimate 
movement  of  protest,  all  measures  being  directed  toward 
securing  the  peaceful  resumption  of  work  next  morning. 
If  this  policy  ever  occurred  to  any  one,  it  was  negatived 
in  advance  by  a  telegram  received  on  Sunday  the  25th 
from  the  Minister  of  the  Interior,  Sr.  La  Cierva,  urging 
that  anything  in  the  nature  of  a  strike  must  not  be  treated 
like  an  ordinary  economic  manifestation,  but  repressed 
with  vigour,  as  a  rebellion. 

The  Civil  Governor,  Don  Angel  Ossorio,  has  been 
much  ridiculed  for  not  knowing  that  a  strike  was  in  pre- 
paration ;  but  he  has  shown  conclusively  that  he  did  know 
it.  He  was  apparently  a  weak  man  in  a  situation  which 
a  strong  man  could  scarcely  have  dominated  with  the 
forces  at  his  disposition,  and  on  the  principles  inculcated 
from  headquarters  at  Madrid. 

At  midday  the  Junta  (a  small  body  of  officials) 
assembled,  and,  outvoting  the  Civil  Governor,  determined 
to  declare  the  state  of  siege.  Thereupon  the  Governor 
resigned  in  a  pet — according  to  some  accounts,  he  was 
practically  dismissed  by  an  insulting  telegram  from  Sr. 
La  Cierva — and  absolute  authority  devolved  upon  the 
Captain-General,  Don  Luis  de  Santiago  y  Manescau. 
This  officer  signed  a  proclamation  of  the  state  of  siege — 
"  estado  dc  guerra  " — which  at  four  o'clock  was  placarded 
on  all  the  walls.  The  opinion  of  the  Junta  had  been  that 
the  proclamation  would  at  once  terrorize  the  people  into 
quietude ;  but  it  had  no  such  effect.  Throughout  the 
afternoon  and  evening  there  were  constant  skirmishes 
between  the  forces  of  order  and  the  people.  The  pro- 
clamation declared  that  all  "groups  "  formed  in  the  streets 
would  be  broken  up  by  force  ;  and  in  carrying  out  this  policy 
the  authorities  successfully  embittered  the  popular  irritation. 

K 


130  FRANCISCO   FERRER 

When  night  fell  on  Monday,  however,  no  very  great 
harm  had  been  done.     It  seems  pretty  clear  that  a  little 
tact  and  conciliation  might  still  have  secured  the  resump- 
tion of  work  on  the  Tuesday  morning  ;  but,  as  a  matter  of 
fact,  the  authorities  were  hopelessly  out  of  touch  with  the 
people.     In  the  central  parts  of  Barcelona,  the  morning  of 
Tuesday  the  27th  passed  quietly  enough ;   women  went 
about  their  marketing  as  usual,  and,  but  for  the  absence  of 
all  wheel  traffic,  the  non-appearance  of  the  newspapers,  and 
the  constant  patrolling  of  the  streets,  the  city  wore  almost 
its  normal  aspect.     From  some  of  the  outlying  districts, 
however,  firing  could  be  heard.     In  Pueblo  Nuevo,  quite 
early  in  the  morning,  a  school  or  refuge  belonging  to  the 
Marist  order,  was  attacked  and  burnt,  the  director  of  it 
being  killed.     This  was  the  first  burning,  and  probably  the 
first  death ;  but  several  people  were  killed  in  a  skirmish 
between  the  mob  and  the  soldiers  who  presently  came  on 
the  scene.     After  this  isolated  act  of  lawlessness,  however, 
there  followed  a  pause  of  five  or  six  hours.     It  was  not 
till  the  afternoon  that  the  strike  definitely  and  suddenly 
flamed  up  into  an  insurrection. 

The  movement  had  by  this  time  quite  got  out  of  the 
hands  of  the  Strike  Committee.  They  had  not,  indeed, 
ordered  the  resumption  of  work,  because  to  have  done  so 
would  have  been  to  desert  other  towns  of  Catalonia,  where 
events  had  already  assumed  a  more  decidedly  revolutionary 
character  than  they  had  in  Barcelona.  Moreover,  in  the 
absence  of  telegraphic  news,  wild  rumours  and  wild  hopes 
were  abroad  as  to  the  success  of  the  revolution  in  other 
parts  of  Spain  ;  so  that  they  determined  to  await  develop- 
ments. But  it  was  no  order  of  the  chiefs  that  led  to  the 
ultimate  outbreak.  It  was  partly  the  impatience  of  the 
reservists,  who  preferred  fighting  in  Barcelona  to  fighting 


MELODRAMATIC   THEORIES      131 

in  Africa.  It  was  partly  the  fact  that  the  official  Radical- 
Republican  leaders  held  aloof  in  dismay,  and  gave  their 
partizans  no  lead  at  all.  It  was  partly  a  rumour  which  got 
abroad  that  ten  Catalonian  soldiers  who  had  taken  part  in 
the  scenes  of  Sunday  the  i8th  had  been  led  out  and  shot 
on  their  arrival  at  Melilla.  But  mainly,  I  suspect,  the 
sudden  effervescence  of  Tuesday  afternoon  was  the  in- 
evitable result  of  prolonged  nervous  tension,  lacking  the 
safety-valve  of  work.  "  Satan  finds  some  mischief  still  for 
idle  mobs  to  do." 

Some  people  seriously  believe  that  the  revolt  was 
fomented  by  Carlist  agents,  clerical  and  lay,  in  the  hope 
that  it  would  spread  over  Spain,  and  that  the  Pretender, 
Don  Jaime  de  Bourbon,  might  "sail  into  power  on  the 
wave  of  revolution."  There  is,  it  would  seem,  some 
evidence  for  the  belief  that,  in  the  event  of  a  Carlist  rising, 
some  of  the  religious  orders  would  have  been  found  armed,^ 
and  willing  to  use  their  arms  in  the  cause  of  Ultramontane 
reaction.  But  to  believe  that  the  Jesuits,  or  any  other 
order,  actually  lighted  the  torch  of  the  incendiaries,  is  a 
feat  of  credulity  far  beyond  me.  I  cite  the  theory  merely 
as  one  more  proof  of  the  profound  distrust  with  which  the 
congregations  are  regarded.  There  is,  in  truth,  not  the 
slightest  need  to  fly  to  any  such  melodramatic  hypothesis. 
The  facts  of  the  case  are  briefly  and  convincingly  stated  by 
Don  Angel  Ossorio,  who,  however  unlucky  in  his  measures 
of  repression,  was  on  the  spot  and  in  the  best  possible 
position  to  know  what  he  was  talking  about.  He  writes  : 
"  In  the  melancholy  events  of  July,  there  are  two  elements 
to  be  distinguished  :  the  general  strike,  a  thing  prepared 
and  k?iown,  and  the  anarchistic-revolutionary  movement, 

'  It  is  certain  that  several  attacks  upon  the  Jesuit  College  in  Barcelona 
were  repulsed  by  armed  students  of  the  institution, 


132  FRANCISCO   FERRER 

of  a  political  character,  a  thing  which  burst  forth  {siirgib) 
without  preparation,^'     The  italics  are  Don  Angel's. 

Be  this  as  it  may,  in  the  early  afternoon  of  Tuesday, 
the  revolt,  which  had  been  simmering  for  thirty-six  hours, 
finally  boiled  over.  Sr.  Brissa,  the  compiler  of  the  most 
impartial  and  trustworthy  history  of  the  Red  Week,  thus 
describes  the  actual  outbreak — 

"  At  half-past  one,  the  writer  of  these  lines  crossed  the 
city  from  the  Rambla  to  the  Entrada  de  Gracia  without 
observing  in  the  streets  any  other  abnormality  than  those 
above  noted  [the  absence  of  street-cars,  the  military  patrols, 
etc.].  But  when  he  returned  to  the  centre  of  the  city  two 
hours  later,  the  aspect  of  affairs  had  entirely  changed. 
Barcelona  was  in  full  revolution.  Hundreds  (!)  of  barri- 
cades had  risen  as  if  by  magic.  ...  In  the  poorer  quarters, 
particularly  in  the  Paralelo,  enormous  multitudes  had 
gathered.  They  completely  filled  the  spacious  Ronda  de 
San  Antonio. 

"  Soon  there  rose  a  column  of  smoke,  towering  into  the 
firmament ;  and  a  few  minutes  later,  another.  It  was  the 
church  and  convent  of  the  Jeronimas,  and  the  grandiose 
establishment  of  the  Escolapios,  church,  school,  academy 
and  laboratory,  that  had  been  given  to  the  flames. 

"  Nor  was  it  long  before  new  columns  of  smoke  arose. 
When  night  fell  on  Tuesday,  in  city  and  suburbs  together, 
something  like  thirty  churches  and  convents  were  blazing. 

"  Incendiarism  continued  its  work  during  the  whole 
night  and  a  portion  of  the  following  day,  destroying, 
wholly  or  in  part,  some  fifty  ecclesiastical  buildings.  The 
famous  convent-burning  of  1835  was  but  a  trifle  compared 
with  this." 

From  two  o'clock  on  Tuesday,  for  something  like  sixty 
hours,  anarchy  reigned  in  Barcelona.      The  street  fighting 


QUIET   RESTORED  133 

was  incessant,  so  long  as  daylight  lasted,  except  for  a 
sort  of  truce  in  the  early  mornings.  The  fact  that  no 
revolt  had  been  prepared  was  apparent  in  the  very 
inadequate  arming  of  the  insurgents.  They  looted  some 
gun-stores,  and  carried  off  the  arms  from  some  pawn- 
shops ;  but  these  sources  of  supply  were  very  soon 
exhausted.  It  was  no  doubt  by  reason  ,of  this  insuffi- 
ciency of  weapons  and  ammunition  that  the  losses  on 
the  Government  side  were  almost  ridiculously  small. 

On  the  night  of  the  27th,  from  the  surrounding  hills, 
the  spectacle  of  Barcelona  dotted  all  over  with  conflagra- 
tions must  have  been  at  once  superb  and  terrible.     But 
there  was  no  strategy  in  the  fighting,  no  method  in  the 
convent-burning.     It  was  all  desultory,  planless,  purpose- 
less :  an  uncontrollable  ebullition   of  rage   and  mischief. 
The  authorities  were  still  in  telegraphic  communication 
with  Madrid  by  way  of  the  Balearic  Islands  ;    and  one  line 
of  railway  had  either  not  been  cut  or  had  been  restored. ^ 
Troops  reached  the  city  from  distant  parts  of  Spain,  who 
were  more  to  be  trusted  than  the  local  levies.     Artillery 
was    brought    into    play    against    the    barricades.      On 
Thursday  evening  the  Captain-General  placarded  on  the 
walls    a    royal    decree    "  suspending    the    constitutional 
guarantees  "  in  the  provinces  of  Barcelona,  Tarragona,  and 
Gerona  ;  but   by   that   time   the   revolt   had    pretty   well 
exhausted  itself    Business  began  to  be  resumed  on  Friday, 
though  conflicts  still   occurred  in  the  streets    in   certain 
quarters.     By  Monday  the  city  had  regained  its  normal 
aspect,  and  the  "  tragic  week  "  was  over. 

The  total  death-roll  was  comparatively  small.      It  is 

'  Sr.  Villaescusa,  in  his  history  of  the  "  revolution  "  from  the  Catholic 
point  of  view,  states  (p.  21)  that  the  direct  line  to  Madrid  had  remained  intact. 
If  this  be  so,  what  arc  we  to  think  of  the  alleged  masterly  organization  of  the 
revolt  ? 


134  FRANCISCO   FERRER 

generally  placed  between  sixty  and  seventy ;  but  the 
Minister  of  the  Interior,  in  the  Cortes,  stated  it  at  one 
hundred  and  four.  Apparently  marksmanship  was  not 
the  strong  point  of  the  combatants  on  either  side.  The 
losses  among  the  soldiers  and  police  were  not  more  than 
four  or  five  all  told.  The  wounded  on  both  sides  were,  of 
course,  very  much  more  numerous. 

It  has  been  the  policy  of  Catholic  commentators  to 
write  and  speak  as  though  some  sinister  mystery  underlay 
the  fact  that  the  protest  against  the  Melilla  adventure  took 
such  a  violently  anti-clerical  turn.  I  trust  I  have  shown 
that  there  is  really  no  mystery  in  the  matter.  The 
religious  houses  were  chronically  and  intensely  unpopular  ; 
the  clergy  were  supposed  (and  rightly)  to  be  hand  in  glove 
with  the  militarists  ;  and  they  were  suspected  of  being 
financially  interested  in  the  Melilla  operations.  It  remains 
to  be  added  that  a  most  unwise  attempt  had  been  made 
in  some  quarters  to  represent  the  war  in  the  light  of  a 
crusade  of  the  Christian  against  the  infidel — a  piece  of 
hypocrisy  that  deceived  no  one  and  irritated  many.  At 
a  meeting  of  four  thousand  workmen  held  at  Tarrasa, 
a  manufacturing  town  in  the  immediate  neighbourhood 
of  Barcelona,  a  few  days  before  the  outbreak,  a  resolution 
was  passed  protesting  against  "  the  sending  to  the  war  of 
citizens  productively  employed  and,  as  a  rule,  indifferent 
to  the  triumph  of  '  the  Cross '  over  *  the  Crescent,'  when  it 
would  be  easy  to  form  regiments  of  priests  and  monks 
who,  besides  being  directly  interested  in  the  success  of 
the  Catholic  religion,  have  no  family  or  home,  and  are 
of  no  utility  to  the  country." 

In  view  of  such  a  resolution  as  this,  we  need  scarcely 
look  much  further  for  the  connecting  link  between  anti- 
militarist  and  anti-clerical  manifestations.     But  it  happens 


WHO   LIT   THE   TORCH?  135 

that  we  know  precisely  whence  the  immediate  suggestion 
of  incendiarism  proceeded.  On  Sunday  the  25th,  the 
day  before  the  strike  and  two  days  before  the  revolt, 
Sr.  Lerroux's  newspaper,  El  Frogreso,  the  most  influential 
in  Barcelona,  contained  an  article,  headed  with  the  English 
word 

j  REMEMBER ! 

recalling  the  fact  that  that  day  was  the  anniversary  of 
a  great  outburst  of  convent-burning  in  1835,  and  deploring 
that,  in  these  degenerate  times,  there  was  no  likelihood 
of  its  repetition  !  No  one  who  reads  this  article  can  have 
the  smallest  doubt  as  to  who  lit  the  first  torch.  "  On  this 
day  sixty-four  years  ago,"  says  the  writer,  "the  convents, 
which  already  at  that  time  swarmed  in  the  city,  and 
surrounded  it  as  with  a  strong  wall  of  religious  despotism, 
were  assailed  and  burnt.  The  popular  song  reminds  us 
of  those  virile  days."  Here  he  quotes  a  stanza  in  the 
Catalan  speech,  and  then  continues  :  "  Our  grandfathers 
were  no  longer  minded  to  endure  the  monkish  dominion  ; 
and  they  broke  it,  reducing  to  cinders  the  edifices  which 
were  the  symbols  of  oppression.  To-day  times  have 
changed,  and  cowardice  masks  itself  behind  the  words 
tolerance,  culture,  moderation."  Then,  alluding  to  the 
fact  that  the  outbreak  of  1835  had  followed  a  bull-fight, 
he  exclaims,  "  Alas  that  the  great  programme  of  to-day's 
corrida  should  not  be  followed  by  such  an  epilogue  of 
liberation  !  "  Ferrer,  I  may  remark,  was  at  this  time  on 
bad  terms  with  the  Republicans  and  their  organ,  El 
Progreso}  Not  the  slightest  attempt  has  been  made  to 
connect  him  with  [the  (literally)    incendiary  article.     Yet 

*  The  proprietors  of  El  Progreso  had  had  a  bitter  quarrel  with  their  printers, 
who  were  backed  by  the  Solidaridad  Obrcra  j  and  Ferrer  had  openly  sided 
with  the  Solidaridad  against  the  paper. 


136  FRANCISCO   FERRER 

he   is  in  his    grave,  while   the   responsible    editor  of  El 
Progreso,  Don  Emiliano  Iglesias,  is  in  the  Cortes. 

As  to  the  constitution  and  behaviour  of  the  convent- 
burning  mobs,  there  is  an  almost  ludicrous  conflict  of 
evidence,  or  rather  of  assertion.  The  clericals  try  to  make 
them  out  worse  than  fiends,  the  anti-clericals  depict  them 
as  almost  angelic  in  their  chivalry  and  humanity.  On 
August  4  the  Correspofidencia  of  Madrid  published  a  com- 
munication from  its  Barcelona  correspondent  in  which  he 
declared  that,  on  the  night  of  July  27,  "  mad  drunk  with 
blood,  wine,  lust,  dynamite,  and  petroleum,  with  no  other 
desire  than  to  kill  for  killing's  sake,"  the  rebels  destroyed 
the  convents  and  massacred  their  inmates. 

Who  can  tell  the  number  of  dead,  wounded,  and  burnt 
who  are  buried  beneath  the  ruins?  .  .  .  Spare  me  the 
recital  of  the  details  of  the  martyrdom  of  the  monks,  of 
the  maltreatment  of  the  nuns,  of  the  brutal  way  in  which 
they  were  sacrificed.  ...  I  can  only  say  that  many  died 
at  the  foot  of  the  altar,  stabbed  by  a  thousand  women ; 
that  others  were  torn  to  pieces,  their  limbs  being  carried 
about  on  poles ;  that  not  a  few  were  tortured  to  death  ; 
and  that  all  passed  to  another  life  with  the  crown  of 
martyrdom. 

This  is  a  fair  specimen  of  history  as  it  was  written 
in  the  days  immediately  succeeding  the  outbreak  ;  and, 
though  every  one  now  admits  that  it  is  delirious  nonsense, 
the  clerical  party,  while  abandoning  the  details,  still  writes 
as  though  the  general  picture  were  a  true  one.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  the  hecatomb  of  martyrs  reduces  itself,  even 
by  Catholic  computation,  to  four :  two  priests  shot  (one  of 
them  in  the  act  of  firing  on  the  mob),  one  priest  suffocated 
in  the  cellar  of  his  burning  church,  and  one  nun  brutally 
killed.     For  the   last  outrage  the   evidence   seems  to  be 


CONDUCT   OF   THE   MOB  137 

very  insufficient  ;  ^  for  the  death  of  the  three  priests,  and 
the  mutilation  of  the  body  of  one  of  them,  the  evidence  is 
pretty  strong.  It  is  absurd,  then,  to  pretend,  as  some 
people  do,  that  the  mob  was  absolutely  seraphic  in  its 
ardour  ;  but  it  is  certainly  very  remarkable  that,  in  such  a 
wild  outbreak,  murder,  and  even  fatal  accident,  should 
have  been  so  infrequent.  There  is  abundance  of  evidence, 
from  the  mouths  of  priests  and  nuns  themselves,  that  the 
general  temper  of  the  mob  was  not  in  the  least  homicidal,^ 
and  that  they  took  pains  to  have  the  buildings  cleared  of 
their  inmates  before  setting  fire  to  them.  Even  so,  no 
doubt  it  was  sufficiently  alarming  and  distressing  for 
hundreds  of  religious  ladies  to  be  forced  to  quit  their 
sanctuaries  at  a  moment's  notice,  and  see  them  delivered 
to  the  flames.  It  is  with  no  view  of  defending  the  conduct 
of  the  rabble  that  I  insist  upon  the  essential  difference 
between  burning  an  empty  convent  and  burning  it  over 
the  heads  of  its  inmates. 

But,  if  the  revolt  was  far  from  being  a  massacre,  at 
least,  say  some,  it  was  a  scene  of  unbridled  rapine.  On 
this   point,  too,  the  opposing   parties   take   up    violently 

*  A  proclamation  published  on  August  9,  1909,  in  the  Boletin  Ofuial 
Eclesi&stico  by  the  titular  Bishop  of  Eudoxia  and  Vicar  Capitular  of  the 
diocese  of  Barcelona,  denounces  in  no  measured  terms  the  misdeeds  of  the 
rioters,  but  speaks  of  the  deatn  of  only  one  priest,  and  says  nothing  of  any 
outrage  upon  a  nun.  That  he  should  not  have  heard  of  it,  twelve  days  after 
the  event,  seems  incredible;  and  still  more  incredible  that,  knowing  of  it,  he 
should  have  kept  his  knowledge  to  himself.  Moreover  the  Auditor,  in  his 
"dictamen"  on  Ferrer's  sentence,  relates  in  detail  (p.  312)  a  case  in  which  a 
nun  was  somewhat  roughly  handled  by  the  mob,  but  evidently  knows  nothing 
of  any  outrage  and  murder.  The  Prosecutor  (p.  258)  uses  vague  language, 
which  might  be  taken  to  mean  that  many  such  cases  had  occurred  ;  but  this  is 
evidently  a  mere  rhetorical  flourish — he  has  no  individual  case  in  his  mind. 

*  There  were  several  instances,  recorded  by  priests  and  nuns,  in  which  the 
rioters,  on  realizing  the  beneficent  nature  of  a  particular  institution,  passed  it 
by  uninjured,  and  even  took  tiouble  to  protect  it  from  other  aggressors.  Note 
the  cases  of  the  Casa-Asilo  de  San  Andres  and  the  Hospital  de  niiios  escrofu- 
losos  de  San  Juan  de  Dios,  Brissa  La  Revolucidn  de  Julio,  pp.  91  and  131. 


138  FRANCISCO   FERRER 

contradictory  positions.  It  would  be  ridiculous  to  suppose 
that  in  a  great  city  like  Barcelona,  not  noted  at  any  time 
as  a  home  of  all  the  virtues,  the  destruction  of  half  a 
hundred  rich  ecclesiastical  buildings  should  be  wholly 
unaccompanied  by  robbery.  I  am  not  aware  that  any 
serious  crime  of  this  nature  has  been  legally  brought  home 
to  the  rioters.  We  do  not  hear,  for  instance,  of  any  one 
attempting  to  sell  or  pawn  valuable  objects  from  the  loot 
of  the  monasteries,  and  convicted  of  the  offence.  The 
robberies  definitely  alleged  are  of  a  trifling  nature — a 
great  barrel  of  olive  oil  carefully  tapped  and  emptied, 
fruit-trees  despoiled,  chickens  carried  off  and  sold  for  three 
halfpence  apiece.  It  is  highly  probable  that  many  such 
depredations,  and  some,  perhaps,  of  a  more  serious  nature, 
were  committed  by  the  dregs  of  the  populace,  the  camp- 
followers  of  the  revolt.  But  there  is  clear  evidence  that 
robbery  was  not  the  motive  of  the  main  body  of  the 
incendiaries.  They  were  bent  on  destruction,  not  on  theft. 
They  made  bonfires,  not  only  of  objects  of  sanctity,  but 
of  objects  of  value.  No  bank  was  attacked  ;  no  store, 
other  than  gun-stores ;  not  one  of  the  many  splendid 
houses  of  the  commercial  magnates  of  Barcelona.  The 
word  "sack"  is  no  more  justly  applicable  to  the  events 
than  the  word  "  massacre." 

But  while  the  mob,  as  a  whole,  was  neither  murderous 
nor  rapacious,  it  was  blind  and  superstitious  in  its  rage 
against  all  things  associated  with  religion.  Its  deeds  show 
no  trace  of  any  rational  leadership.  It  did  not,  for  in- 
stance, single  out  for  destruction  those  institutions  which 
competed  unfairly  in  confectionery,  laundry  work,  or  other 
industries.  The  great  majority  of  the  buildings  destroyed 
lay  under  no  such  suspicion.  Some  were  inoffensive 
houses  of  retreat ;   not  a  few  were  charitable  institutions 


DESECRATION   OF   TOMBS         139 

for  the  benefit  of  the  working  classes  themselves.  One 
(I  am  credibly  assured)  was  a  creche  or  day-nursery  for 
infants,  which  is  now  sadly  missed.  But,  while  this  proves 
the  lack  of  reason  in  the  crowd,  it  also  proves  the  failure 
of  these  charitable  institutions  to  establish  themselves  in 
popular  esteem.  Priests  and  nuns  engaged  in  education 
complain  bitterly  that  the  parents  of  some  of  their  pupils, 
and  even  the  pupils  themselves,  were  prominent  among 
the  rioters.  "  The  pity  of  it !  "  cries  the  Mother  Superior 
of  the  Franciscanas  de  la  Concepcion.  "  The  first  stones 
thrown  against  our  house  came  from  the  hands  of  three 
girls  who  had  been  our  pupils  !  "  This  is  by  no  means 
an  isolated  instance  ;  and  such  facts  show  that,  however 
excellent  its  intentions,  conventual  education  was  not  always 
very  fortunate  in  its  results. 

Now  that  the  charge  of  massacre  proves  to  be  un- 
founded, however,  the  main  allegation  against  the  mob 
is  that  they  desecrated  tombs,  and  paraded  the  streets 
with  the  embalmed  bodies  of  religious  ladies.  The  fact 
is  undoubted.  In  more  than  one  convent,  the  niches  of 
the  crypts  were  broken  open  and  bodies  dragged  to  light, 
to  the  total  number,  it  is  said,  of  about  thirty-five.  But 
it  is  no  less  certain  that  the  motive  of  this  profanation 
was  a  desire  to  ascertain  whether  there  was  any  sign  of 
the  nuns  having  been  tortured,  or  even  buried  alive.  It 
was  found,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  that  many  of  the  bodies 
had  their  hands  and  feet  bound  together  ;  and,  though 
this  is  susceptible  of  a  quite  innocent  explanation,  it  was 
not  unnaturally  taken  at  first  as  confirming  the  most 
sinister  rumours.  To  the  Anglo-Saxon  mind,  it  would 
seem  that  when  a  community  walls  itself  in  from  the  world, 
and  admits  no  intervention  of  the  law,  no  public  inspection 
of  its  practices,  whether  in  life  or  death,   it  should  not 


UO  FRANCISCO   FERRER 

complain  if  suspicions  arise  as  to  the  nature  of  these 
practices.  The  alleged  design  of  the  rioters  was  to  take 
the  bodies  to  the  Ayimtamiento,  or  town  hall,  that  their 
condition  might  be  publicly  verified.  Few,  if  any,  of  them 
seem  to  have  reached  that  destination  ;  but,  with  sharp 
fighting  going  on  in  the  barricaded  streets,  this  was 
scarcely  surprising. 

I  am  inclined  to  believe  that  the  mob,  in  its  summary 
researches,  discovered  no  good  evidence  of  torture  or  other 
malpractices  in  the  religious  houses.  A  so-called  "  roast- 
ing-bed  "  in  the  Magdalen  Convent — a  bed  of  sheet  iron 
screwed  down  to  the  floor,  under  which  it  was  said  that 
gas-jets  could  be  lighted — was  examined  by  Mr.  Henry 
Nevinson  of  the  London  Daily  News,  who  satisfied  him- 
self that  the  gas  apparatus  was  imaginary,  and  that,  in  all 
probability,  the  bed  was  intended  for  insane  patients,  who 
might  have  used  loose  iron  slats  to  do  an  injury  to  them- 
selves or  others.  Similarly,  a  "  coining  apparatus  "  found 
in  one  of  the  monasteries  was  probably  a  machine  for 
striking  schoolboys'  medals.  It  was,  of  course,  said  that 
materials  for  the  making  of  bombs  had  been  discovered ; 
but  I  do  not  know  that  any  serious  attempt  has  been 
made  to  substantiate  this  charge. 

There  is  more  evidence  for  the  assertion  that  some  of 
the  hombres  de  los  terrados — mysterious  persons  who  de- 
voted themselves  to  "  sniping  "  from  the  house-tops — were, 
in  fact,  clerics  who  desired  to  enrage  the  troops  against  the 
townspeople.  Many  accounts  are  given  of  the  exploits  of 
these  elusive  sharpshooters,  to  the  fact  of  whose  existence 
all  parties  bear  witness.  Here  is  Mr.  Rafael  Shaw's 
version  of  the  matter — 

Notwithstanding  that  the  fighting  was  over,  shooting 
from  the  roofs  of  the  houses  went  on  for  two  days  more : 


THE   PARAPET   MEN  141 

the  shots  came  from  invisible  persons  concealed  behind 
the  parapets  and  other  sheltered  positions.  And,  what 
was  more  remarkable,  whether  the  shooting  was  in  work- 
ing-class districts,  or,  as  was  frequently  the  case,  from 
houses  in  those  quarters  of  the  city  where  rich  men  live, 
the  noise  of  the  report  and  the  bullets  which  were  found 
were  always  the  same.  The  "man  on  the  roof"  invariably 
used  a  Browning  pistol,  a  weapon  not  easily  procured  by 
a  poor  artisan.  Thirty,  forty,  fifty  such  shots  would  be 
fired  in  succession,  the  troops  would  hurry  up  to  the  roof 
from  which  the  bullets  came,  find  no  one  there,  and  see 
nothing  suspicious,  yet  hear  the  rattle  of  the  shots  again 
as  they  returned  to  their  duty  in  the  street  below.  A 
civilian  who  ran  up  the  stairs  from  the  ground  floor  in 
one  of  the  "  haunted "  houses  told  me  that  although 
several  shots  were  fired  as  he  ran,  no  one  was  to  be  seen 
above,  except  a  young  priest  professedly  on  the  same 
errand  as  his  own.  It  was  said  that  among  the  many 
people  arrested  there  was  at  least  one  priest.  But  nothing 
more  was  heard  of  him,  and  whether  he  was  released  as 
innocent,  or  allowed  to  disappear,  was  not  revealed  to 
the  public. 

The  truth  of  the  matter  will  probably  never  be  known  ; 
but  even  if  it  be  the  fact  that  one  or  two  mischievous 
fanatics  were  caught  at  this  game,  it  would  be  unfair  to 
make  the  Catholic  Church  responsible  for  them.  The 
clerical  no  less  than  the  anti-clerical  host  would  naturally 
have  its  fringe  of  malefactors. 

The  history  of  the  Red  Week  is  not  strictly  speaking 
relevant  to  our  inquiry.  There  is  scarcely  the  shadow 
of  a  pretence  that  Ferrer  took  any  active  part  in  it.  We 
shall  find,  indeed,  one  witness  who  thought  he  saw  him 
"  captaining  a  group  "  at  a  stated  time  ;  but  the  group  was 
not  doing  anything  in  particular.  At  the  very  opening 
of  his  speech  before  the  Military  Court,  the  Prosecutor 


142  FRANCISCO   FERRER 

explicitly  renounced  all  idea  of  bringing  home  to  him  any 
individual  act  of  rebellion.  The  details  of  the  revolt, 
then,  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  question  of  his  guilt 
or  innocence.  It  seemed  well,  however,  to  sketch  the 
course  of  events,  not  only  because  they  are  of  some 
interest  in  themselves,  but  also  because  it  is  important 
that  they  should  be  seen  in  something  like  their  true 
proportions.  We  shall  see  later  how  lurid  and  rhetorical 
exaggerations  of  the  horrors  of  the  revolt  were  used  to 
inflame  the  public  mind,  and  the  minds  of  his  judges, 
against  Ferrer,  in  calm  disregard  of  the  desirability  of 
proving,  in  the  first  place,  that  he  was  in  any  way  respon- 
sible for  them.  As  though  the  magnitude  of  the  crime 
of  which  a  man  is  accused  were  in  itself  a  reason  for 
believing  him  guilty  of  it ! 


XI 

FERRER  DAY  BY  DAY 

It  is  now  time  to  return  to  Ferrer,  whom  we  left  living 
peaceably  at  Mas  Germinal,  fully  occupied  with  his 
editorial  tasks  and  schemes,  and  smiling  at  the  spies  who 
were  set  to  watch  his  movements. 

On  July  22 — just  four  days  after  the  Sunday  that 
witnessed  the  first  scene  of  protest  against  the  war,  and 
four  days  before  the  Monday  of  the  general  strike — he 
wrote  a  letter  to  Miguel  Moreno,  formerly  a  teacher  in 
the  Escuela  Moderna,  who  desired  to  discuss  with  him 
the  possible  foundation  of  a  farm-school.  Here  is  the 
letter  in  full  (I  have  seen  the  original) — 

Mongat,  22/7,  1909. 

Friend  Moreno, 

I  have  so  many  things  to  arrange  and  put  in 
order  here  at  Mongat  that  I  intend  to  go  very  little  to 
Barcelona  until  I  have  finished. 

In  order  to  see  me,  the  best  plan  would  be  for  you 
to  come  here  on  some  holiday  afternoon.  But,  if  that 
does  not  suit  you,  I  would  come  to  Barcelona  on  Sunday 
morning,  by  a  train  that  arrives  at  nine.  In  that  case 
let  me  know  beforehand  and  meet  me  at  the  station. 

I  repeat  that  I  am  your  affectionate 

Ferrer. 

We  have  recently  lost  a  niece  eight  years  old,  to  our 
no  small  sorrow,  as  you  may  suppose. 


144  FRANCISCO   FERRER 

Here  we  find  "the  author  and  chief  of  the  rebellion," 
four  days  before  its  outbreak,  not  even  mentioning  public 
affairs,  and  expressing  a  wish  to  avoid  coming  to  Barce- 
lona, Moreno,  however,  in  his  reply,  suggested  a  meeting 
at  the  station,  not  for  Sunday,  but  for  Monday  morning ; 
and  to  this  Ferrer  agreed.  As  we  have  seen,  he  certainly 
did  not  visit  Barcelona  in  the  interval ;  for,  had  he  done 
so,  the  police  spies  would  have  reported  the  fact,  and  the 
prosecution  would  not  have  failed  to  make  much  of  it. 
But  perhaps  he  was  all  the  time  plotting  the  revolt  by 
correspondence  ?  No  one  who  has  any  experience  of  the 
Spanish  post-office  will  believe  this  possible  ;  and,  as  above 
noted,  no  single  letter  of  Ferrer's  has  been  produced 
inciting  to,  or  in  any  way  bearing  upon,  the  disturbances. 
The  prosecution,  in  short,  though  it  admitted  that  Ferrer 
was  under  close  surveillance,  did  not  even  attempt  to 
bring  home  to  him  a  single  act  of  preparation  or  organi- 
zation during  the  critical  days  before  the  outbreak.  What 
would  a  jury  have  thought  of  this  omission  ? 

Well,  on  the  morning  of  the  fateful  26th,  Ferrer  betook 
himself  to  Barcelona,  and  Moreno  met  him,  as  arranged, 
at  the  Estacion  de  Francia.  Here  it  was  that  the  two 
streams,  of  private  and  of  public  events,  definitely  flowed 
together.  Moreno  was,  in  fact,  one  of  those  most  actively 
concerned  in  the  organization  of  the  strike,  which,  be  it 
remembered,  was  by  this  time  in  active  progress.  He 
naturally  told  Ferrer  what  was  afoot ;  and  he  strongly 
asserts  that  this  was  the  first  Ferrer  had  heard  of  it. 

"  Why  did  he  say  ? "  I  asked. 

"He  said,"  Moreno  replied,  "that  if  it  was  a  serious 
movement  that  was  going  to  lead  to  anything,  it  had  all 
his  sympathy  ;  but  if  it  was  to  be  a  mere  flash  in  the  pan, 
he  regretted  it." 


IN    BARCELONA  145 

On  parting  from  Moreno,  Ferrer,  according  to  his  own 
account  (confirmed  by  his  employees  and  by  independent 
witnesses),  proceeded  to  his  publishing  office  in  the  Calle 
Cortes.  He  had  not  been  long  there  when  a  band  of 
women  appeared,  demanding  that  the  office  should  be 
closed.  He  at  once  agreed,  and  only  a  side  door  was  left 
open.  Then  he  went  out  to  procure  samples  of  paper  for 
his  projected  edition  of  Kropotkin's  Great  Revolution^ 
after  having  instructed  his  secretary,  Cristobal  Litran,  to 
arrange  with  an  engraver  to  meet  him  at  the  office  at  four 
in  the  afternoon,  with  reference  to  the  illustrations  for  the 
same  work.  He  lunched  alone  at  the  Maison  Doree,  a 
well-known  restaurant  in  the  Plaza  de  Cataluiia,  At  four 
he  kept  the  appointment  with  the  engraver  at  his  office, 
and  asked  the  office  messenger,  a  youth  named  Meseguer, 
to  carry  to  the  station  for  him  a  cardboard  box  "  contain- 
ing a  dress  for  his  wife."  This  the  young  man  did,  pre- 
ceding Ferrer  to  the  station ;  but  when  Ferrer  arrived,  in 
time  for  the  six  o'clock  train,  behold  !  he  found  a  notice 
stating  that  the  line  was  cut  and  no  trains  running. 
Meseguer,  seeing  that  he  was  much  put  about  by  this, 
offered  to  walk  to  Mongat  and  tell  his  family  that  all  was 
well  with  him.  He  at  first  demurred,  saying  that  it  was 
too  far  to  walk  ;  but  th^^  lad  insisted,  and  Ferrer  at  last 
accepted  his  offer.  Then  he  went  and  dined  at  the  Hotel 
Internacional  on  the  Ramblas,  spent  the  evening  with 
friends  at  a  cafe,  and  at  last,  soon  after  midnight,  set  forth 
to  walk  home,  arriving  at  Mas  Germinal  at  about  five  in 
the  morning. 

This  account  of  Ferrer's  day  is  mainly  founded  on  his 
own  deposition.  His  statement  as  to  interviews  with  the 
paper-maker  and  engraver  was  confirmed  by  the  evidence 
of    the    parties    in    question,    taken    by    the    Examining 

L 


146  FRANCISCO   FERRER 

Commandant.  The  evidence  of  Litran  and  Meseguer  was 
not  before  the  court,  they  having  been  deported,  as  we  shall 
presently  see,  with  all  Ferrer's  family  and  staff;  but  they 
made  formal  declarations  which  they  sent  from  their  place 
of  banishment  to  Ferrer's  defender.  I  may  mention  that 
in  Ferrer's  own  deposition,  as  read  to  the  court,  there  are 
one  or  two  inaccuracies,  quite  trifling,  and  of  no  signifi- 
cance either  for  or  against  him,  which  we  can  only  put 
down  to  defective  reporting  on  the  part  of  the  officials. 
For  example,  the  interview  with  the  engraver  is  represented 
as  taking  place  in  the  morning  instead  of  the  afternoon.^ 

But  here  it  must  be  said  that,  although  Ferrer  told 
nothing  but  the  truth  as  to  his  employments  on  the  26th, 
he  did  not  tell  the  whole  truth.  For  instance,  he  said 
nothing  of  his  meeting  with  Moreno  ;  and  we  shall  see 
later  that  there  were  several  other  incidents  on  which  he 
was  silent  The  reader  shall  judge  for  himself  as  to 
whether  these  incidents  in  any  way  told  against  him. 
Assuming,  in  the  meantime,  that  they  did  not,  we  may 
ask  what  was  the  reason  for  his  silence }  The  answer  is 
pretty  obvious  :  he  was  extremely  careful  not  to  com- 
promise any  of  his  friends.  His  deposition  was  taken 
while  he  was  in  solitary  confinement,  absolutely  ignorant 
as  to  who  might  or  might  not  be  in  the  hands  of  the 
police,  and  knowing  only  that  a  bitter  campaign  of 
vengeance  was  in  full  swing.  Moreno,  as  a  matter  of  fact, 
had  escaped ;  but  it  would  have  been  a  clear  disloyalty  on 
Ferrer's  part  to  allude  to  his  share  in  the  disturbances. 
Even  people  whom  Ferrer  knew  to  have  taken  no  part  in 

^  It  happens  that  these  particular  errors  do  not  matter  ;  but  similar  errors, 
at  other  points  in  the  process,  might  have  the  most  disastrous  efifect.  One  of 
the  witnesses  declared  to  me  :  "  What  we  said  was  no  more  like  what  we 
were  reported  as  saying  than  this  is  like  this  " — pointing  to  a  bottle  of  cognac 
and  a  piece  of  money  which  happened  to  be  on  the  table  before  us. 


MASNOU   AND   PREMIA  147 

the  events  might  have  been  made  to  suffer  for  the  mere 
fact  of  his  naming  them.  He  did  not  even  give  the  name 
of  the  messenger  who  carried  the  dress-box  to  the  station 
for  him. 

At  Mas  Germinal — according  to  Ferrer's  account  and 
that  of  his  family — he  remained  throughout  Tuesday  the 
27th.  Whether  this  be  true  or  not  is  a  crucial  point  in 
the  case,  which  we  shall  have  to  discuss  in  due  time.  On 
Wednesday  the  28th,  at  about  eleven  in  the  morning,  all 
parties  agree  that  he  went  (as  was  his  custom  every 
Wednesday  and  Saturday)  to  a  barber's  shop  in  the  neigh- 
bouring village  of  Masnou,  to  be  shaved.  Thence  he  pro- 
ceeded, a  distance  of  some  two  miles,  to  the  village  of 
Premia  de  Mar,  where  he  remained  about  a  quarter  of  an 
hour  ;  and  then  he  returned  to  Mas  Germinal,  having  been 
absent,  in  all,  between  two  and  three  hours.  There  is  no 
dispute  as  to  these  bare  facts ;  but  the  question  of  what 
he  said  to  persons  whom  he  met  at  Masnou  and  Premia  is 
another — or  rather  the  other — crucial  point  in  the  case. 

On  Thursday  the  29th  one  of  the  household  at  Mas 
Germinal  returned  from  Alella  in  great  excitement,  report- 
ing that  she  had  heard  a  young  woman  declare  that  she 
had,  with  her  own  eyes,  seen  Ferrer  at  the  head  of  a  band 
of  incendiaries  burning  a  convent  at  Premia — where,  in 
fact,  no  convent  had  been  burnt. 

"  I  was  informed  of  this,"  said  Soledad  Villafranca  in 
an  interview  published  in  the  Paris  Journal,  "  and  hastened 
to  question  the  woman,  who  repeated  to  me  what  she  had 
heard.  I  at  once  told  Ferrer,  who  was  quietly  working 
in  his  office  ;  but  he,  instead  of  sharing  my  alarm,  smiled 
at  it.  This  story  of  his  being  seen  in  the  act  of  burning  a 
convent  seemed  to  amuse  him  greatly. 

'"But  it  is  nothing  to  laugh  at ! '  I  said  to  him.     'If 


148  FRANCISCO   FERRER 

once  these  rumours  reach  Barcelona,  you'll  see  they  won't 
want  any  further  excuse  for  arresting  you.' 

" '  It's  ridiculous  ! '  he  replied. 

"  *  Listen  ! '  I  begged  him  at  last.  *  You  see  how  all 
this  is  worrying  me.  The  situation  at  Barcelona  is  grow- 
ing worse,  and  your  enemies  may  quite  well  profit  by  it  to 
ruin  you.  Do  as  I  ask  you — go  away  for  a  time  !  When 
things  are  quiet  again,  you  can  come  back.' 

"  Ferrer  was  very  unwilling  to  take  my  advice.  But 
I  insisted  so  strongly  that  I  succeeded  in  persuading  him 
to  absent  himself  for  some  days.  .  .  . 

"  '  If  you  receive  no  news  of  me,'  he  said  as  we  parted, 
*  it  will  mean  that  all  is  going  well.  I  cannot  tell  you 
where  I  am  going,  for  I  do  not  yet  know.' 

"  And  he  left  me — and  I  was  never  to  see  him  again." 

One  must  not,  of  course,  assume  that  Mme.  Villafranca 
was  quite  accurately  reported;  but  if  she  was,  the  con- 
cluding phrases  of  her  statement  conveyed  a  somewhat 
inexact  impression  of  the  facts.  It  was  not  then,  and  is 
not  now,  safe  to  tell  the  whole  truth  as  to  the  place  and 
manner  of  Ferrer's  concealment.  I  do  not  myself  know 
it  in  detail ;  but  I  know  enough  to  feel  sure  that  his  final 
parting  from  Mme.  Villafranca  did  not  take  place  on  July 
29.  It  will  be  noted  that,  though  she  certainly  implies 
that  it  did,  she  does  not  actually  say  so.  Ferrer's  own 
narrative,  in  letters  to  Charles  Malato^  and  William 
Heaford,  substantially  agrees  with  Mme.  Villafranca's : 
which  means,  no  doubt,  that,  in  loyalty  to  those  who 
actually  stood  by  him,  neither  of  them  could  tell  the  exact 
truth.  The  matter  is  quite  unimportant ;  but  for  the 
benefit  of  future  historians,  I  note  that,  at  this  point,  the 
whole  story  has  not  yet  been  told. 

*  Un  Martyr  des  Preires,  p.  48. 


]\JAS   GERMINAL   INVADED       149 

The  essential  fact  is  that,  for  more  than  a  fortnight, 
Ferrer's    disappearance   was    so    complete    that   he    was 
generally  believed  to  have  escaped  to  France — a  belief  in 
which  the  authorities  fully  shared.     His  friends  even  en- 
couraged the   illusion   by  printing   imaginary   interviews 
with  him  in  French  and  English  papers.    We  may  perhaps 
see  reason  for  thinking  that  the  success  with  which  the 
belief  in  his  escape  was  spread  abroad  proved,  in  the  long 
run,  a  misfortune  to  him.     Early  in  August  his  publishing 
office  was  visited  and  searched,  and  his  secretary,  Litran, 
arrested,  but  set  at  liberty  after  a  two  hours'  examination. 
At  five  in  the  morning,  on  either  the  nth  or  12th  of  the 
month,^  a  lieutenant  of  the  Guardia   Civil,  with   sixteen 
of  his  men,  laid  siege  to  Mas  Germinal,  while  three  police- 
officers,  headed  by  one  Salagaray,  invaded  the  house,  and 
spent  twelve  hours  in  ransacking  it  and  all  its  dependencies, 
including  the  fowl-run,  in  search  of  incriminating  docu- 
ments.    They  found  nothing  of  the  slightest  importance. 
"  Before  Ferrer  left,"  says  Mme.  Villafranca,  "  he  and  I 
had  been  careful  to  make  a  great  clearance  of  papers. 
Not  that  there  was  anything  that  could  justly  be  called 
compromising  ;  but  we  knew  how  the   police   would    try 
to  twist  everything,  not  only  to  his  disadvantage,  but  to 
that  of  his  correspondents."     The  search-party,  however, 
carried  off  a  collection  of  three  hundred  letters  from  Ferrer 
to  his  brother  Jose — a  "  find  "  that  must  have  proved  dis- 
appointing, as  we  hear  no  more  about  it. 

*  Ferrer  himself  says  the  nth;  but  I  have  seen  a  letter  from  Soledad 
Villafranca,  dated  the  13th,  in  which  she  speaks  of  the  search  having  occurred 
•'  yesterday." 


XII 

THE  EXILES   OF  TERUEL 

On  the  i6th  of  August  Ferrer  ought  to  have  transacted 
certain  financial  business  with  a  bank  in  Barcelona,  on 
pain  of  forfeiture  of  some  valuable  securities.^  On  that 
day  Mme.  Villafranca  set  forth  from  Mas  Germinal  to  see 
his  agent  in  the  city,  and  ascertain  whether  the  business 
could  be  completed  without  his  signatur-^.  She  found 
that  it  could  not,  and  brought  away  with  h  •  the  docu- 
ment to  which  his  signature  was  required.  She  was 
shadowed  all  the  time  by  a  police-officer,  who,  however, 
was  the  most  urbane  of  his  tribe,  excused  himself  for 
obeying  disagreeable  orders,  and  insisted  on  paying  her 
tramway  fare — a  common  act  of  courtesy  in  Spain.  On 
the  way  back  from  Mongat  station  to  Mas  Germinal, 
Mme.  Villafranca  invited  him  to  walk  with  her  instead  of 
following  her,  and  he  agreed  with  alacrity.  When  Mas 
Germinal  was  almost  in  sight,  he  parted  from  her  with 
many  apologies,  and  returned  to  Mongat. 

Just  at  this  point  the  road  passed  through  a  tunnel,  in 
the  shadow  of  which  a  man,  unknown  to  Mme.  Villafranca, 
was  lingering.  As  she  passed  him  he  thrust  a  paper  into 
her  hand,  saying,  "  Do  not  stop,  but  read  this  as  you  go." 

^  The  account  of  the  matter  given  by  Sr.  Crespo  Azorin,  the  Civil 
Governor  of  Barcelona,  is  that  Ferrer  wanted  to  pledge  for  90,000  pesetas  a 
block  of  shares  in  the  Fomento  de  Obras  y  Construcciones  of  the  nominal 
value  cf  150,000  pesetas.     See  Brissa,  Revolticidn  de  Julio,  p.  218, 


THE   MAN   IN   THE   TUNNEL      151 

Mastering  her  amazement,  she  did  so,  and  found  it  to  be 
a  note  from  Ferrer,  written  on  a  piece  of  brown  paper,  and 
running  thus — 

Dear  Soledad, 

Do  me  the  favour  of  giving  the  policy  to  the 
person  who  hands  you  this.  I  will  sign  it  and  get  it  con- 
veyed to  the  bank.  Do  not  be  distressed  or  uneasy.  I 
will  soon  return.  I  do  not  tell  you  where  I  am  in  order 
to  spare  you  embarrassments. 

Sabes  te  quiere  de  veras  tu  Ferrer. 

Mme.  Villafranca  retraced  her  steps,  and  the  unknown 
approached  her.  As  they  passed  each  other  she  handed 
him  the  document,  while  he  whispered,  "Ask  no  ques- 
tions. Don't  stop,  don't  stop."  The  back  of  the  policeman 
could  still  be  seen  as  he  pursued  his  way  down  the  long, 
straight  road  to  Mongat. 

Three  days  later,  as  Jose  Ferrer  was,  as  usual,  selling 
his  garden  produce  in  the  market-place  at  Barcelona, 
another  (or  the  same)  unknown  man  came  up  to  him, 
handed  him  a  packet,  and  disappeared,  without  giving  him 
time  to  ask  any  questions.  The  packet  contained  the 
document,  signed  by  his  brother. 

This  story  is  related  by  a  correspondent  of  El  Radical 
de  Valencia,  who,  on  other  matters,  is  fully,  if  not  quite 
accurately,  informed.  He  declares  that  he  has  held  in  his 
hands  the  letter  above  quoted.  That  the  story  is  substan- 
tially true  I  do  not  doubt ;  but  I  suspect  a  certain  inter- 
mixture of  fiction.  I  have  refrained  from  inquiring  too 
closely  into  details,  because,  as  I  have  already  remarked, 
the  whole  truth  about  Ferrer's  concealment  must  not  as 
yet  be  published.  It  has  obviously  no  bearing  upon  the 
question  of  his  guilt  or  innocence. 


152  FRANCISCO   FERRER 

What  is  true  beyond  question  is  that,  on  August  19, 
Jose  Ferrer  handed  to  the  bank  the  document  bearing  his 
brother's  signature.  Evidently  the  authorities  had  instant 
notice  of  this  fact,  which  proved  that  Ferrer  was  not  far 
off.  Their  next  move  was  made  no  later  than  the  follow- 
ing day,  and  was  a  pretty  sweeping  one. 

We  have  seen  that  on  the  third  day  of  the  riots, 
July  28,  a  royal  order  had  "  suspended  the  constitutional 
guarantees "  in  three  Catalan  provinces,  thus  placing 
the  liberty  of  the  subject  entirely  at  the  mercy  of  the 
bureaucracy.  Therefore  the  new  Governor  of  Barcelona 
was  well  within  his  rights  when  he  ordered  the  instant 
deportation  of  Soledad  Villafranca  and  her  brother,  Jose 
Ferrer  with  his  wife  and  child,  and  the  whole  staff  of 
Ferrer's  publishing-house.  A  full  account  of  this  amazing 
episode  was  given  me  by  Anselmo  Lorenzo,  Ferrer's  chief 
translator,  a  very  fine  old  man,  whose  story  was  constantly 
interrupted  by  painful  paroxysms  of  chronic  asthma.  At 
the  same  time  he  handed  me  a  written  narrative,  which 
appeared  in  La  Vie  Onvrihe  for  February,  1910,  permit- 
ting me  to  make  what  use  I  required  of  it.  I  translate 
and  condense  the  essential  passages — 

On  the  20th  of  August,  three  weeks  after  the  Barce- 
lona outbreak,  I  received  an  order  to  present  myself  at  a 
police-station,  where  I  was  required  to  answer  a  question. 

Conducted  by  two  policemen,  I  there  found  several 
persons  who  had  received  the  same  summons :  Batllori, 
administrator  of  the  publishing-house  of  the  Escuela 
Moderna ;  Casasola,  who  had  been  one  of  the  teachers  in 
the  school  ;  Jose  Ferrer,  his  wife  Maria  Fontcuberta,  and 
his  daughter  Alba,  three  years  of  age  ;  and  Mme.  Soledad 
Villafranca. 

No  question  was  put  to  us.  We  were  simply  notified 
that,  by  order  of  the  Minister  of  the  Interior,  we  were  to 


SUMMARY   BANISHMENT  153 

leave  by  the  four  o'clock  train  that  afternoon  for  Alcaniz. 
No  legal  formality  was  gone  through,  except  that  to  each 
of  us  was  handed  an  official  paper  running  as  follows  : — 

Government  of  the  Province  of  Barcelona. 

In  virtue  of  the  powers  conferred  on  me  by  Article  9 
of  the  Law  of  Public  Order,  now  in  force  by  reason  of  the 
suspension  of  constitutional  guarantees,  I  decree  your 
banishment  {destierro)  and  that  of  your  family  to  a  dis- 
tance of  more  than  245  and  less  than  250  kilometres  from 
the  city  of  Barcelona.  You  are  to  be  immediately  con- 
ducted, under  the  surveillance  of  the  public  forces,  to  the 
limit  of  the  radius  of  245  kilometres.  God  preserve  you 
many  years ! 

Crespo  Azorin. 

Barcelona,  August  19,  1909. 

Without  any  preparation,  without  equipment  or  money, 
without  being  able  to  say  good-bye  to  our  families,  or  to 
let  them  know  what  had  happened — and  I  in  particular, 
aff'ected  with  a  distressing  chronic  infirmity — we  were  con- 
ducted to  the  station  between  files  of  the  Guardia  Civil, 
and  despatched  on  our  journey. 

Next  day  we  arrived  at  Alcaniz.  We  were  lodged  in  a 
modest  inn,  where  the  Alcalde  came  to  inform  us  that  we 
had  been  placed  under  his  authority,  and  to  recommend  to 
us  the  greatest  prudence. 

In  the  evening  four  new  exiles  arrived — MM.  Litrdn, 
Villafranca,  Robles,  and  Meseguer.  The  next  day  I  was 
joined  by  my  wife,  Francisca  Concha,  and  my  daughters 
Mariana  and  Flora. 

Every  one  of  these  exiles  was  in  a  situation  of  torturing 
anxiety.  Soledad  left  Ferrer  in  concealment,  and  with  no 
means  of  communicating  with  his  friends.  Jose  Ferrer,  his 
wife  and  daughter,  had  had  to  close  their  house  at  Mongat, 
shutting  out  their  young  son  who  was  away  at  the  moment 


154  FRANCISCO  FERRER 

of  their  arrest/  and  leaving  no  one  to  attend  to  the  cows 
and  other  animals  ;  Robles  knew  that  his  wife,  with  a  child 
of  three  months,  had  been  exiled  to  Huesca,  leaving  two 
young  boys  on  the  streets  ;  Villafranca  was  taken  away 
from  his  wife,  who  was  in  the  ninth  month  of  pregnancy, 
and  from  a  printing-office,  recently  started,  and  left  without 
any  one  to  look  after  it.  The  others — not  to  prolong  these 
details — were  in  similar,  or  even  worse,  predicaments. 

Many  other  exiles,  deported  to  various  places  in  the 
provinces  of  Huesca,  Teruel,  Castellon,  and  Valencia, 
suffered  in  the  same  way. 

One  would  have  thought  that  the  Government  proposed 
to  persecute  to  the  point  of  annihilation  the  families  of 
those  whom  it  had  inscribed  on  its  list  of  suspects.  It 
placed  us  at  the  mercy  of  hunger,  destitution,  inclemency 
of  climate,  sickness,  and,  to  crown  all,  fanaticism  ;  but  the 
result  was  just  the  contrary  of  what  might  have  been 
expected.  National  and  international  solidarity  came 
effectually  to  our  aid  ;  and  the  natural  goodness  of  the 
Aragonese  peasants,  whose  ignorance  had  perhaps  been 
expected  to  lead  to  some  sort  of  barbarous  lynching,  was 
converted  into  a  tender  pity,  and  even  a  first  stirring  of 
revolutionary  thought. 

At  Alcaniz  an  attempt  to  organize  a  manifestation  of 
hostility  to  the  exiles  v/as  a  complete  failure  ;  on  the  other 
hand,  the  liberal  youth  of  the  town  gave  us  a  serenade,  in 
which  the  popular  muse  sang,  to  melodies  inspired  by  the 
Aragonese  j'W^r,  verses  of  comfort,  fraternity,  and  hope. 

I  shall  always  recall  with  emotion  the  day  when,  almost 
fainting,  and  scarcely  able  to  move  another  step,  I  entered 
the  market-place,  where,  observing  my  condition,  a  kind- 
hearted  market-woman  led  me  to  a  seat,  and  offered  me  a 
bowl  of  bouillon,  a  cup  of  milk,  a  glass  of  wine.  I  sat 
down  with  my  wife  at  my  side  ;  around  us  gathered  a  great 
circle  of  the  inhabitants,  questioning  us  as  to  the  reasons 
of  our  exile  and   the  events  of  Barcelona.     Our  simple 

'  He  had  gone  to  bathe,  and  the  police  refused  to  await  his  return. — W.  A, 


INIOVED   ON  155 

answers,  bearing  the  stamp  of  truth,  awoke  the  sympathy 
of  our  listeners :  many  women  wept,  many  men  clenched 
their  fists. 

"We  are  not  criminals,"  I  said  to  them,  "we  are  exiled 
here  because  we  were  employed  in  the  Escuela  Moderna  of 
Barcelona,  which  has  been  closed  because  it  gave  to  children 
an  education  calculated  to  make  of  them  free  and  instructed 
men  and  women,  who  will  no  longer  accept  the  delusion 
and  injustice  of  religious  falsehood,  capitalist  exploitation, 
or  political  tyranny."  These  ideas  being  above  the  intel- 
lectual capacity  of  that  audience,  I  tried  to  give  the  necessary 
explanations,  ending  in  this  fashion  :  "We  are  persecuted 
because  we  wish  truth  to  shine  resplendent  in  society,  and 
the  idea  of  good  to  inspire  all  social  acts." 

When  I  rose  and  bade  them  good-bye,  I  was  the  object 
of  the  most  affectionate  demonstrations  from  all  present. 
All  our  companions,  too,  were  received  with  similar  mani- 
festations, and  especially  Soledad,  my  daughters,  and  the 
little  Alba. 

Confronted  by  such  a  result,  the  magnates  of  the  district, 
the  rich  and  influential  people,  decided  to  get  us  away  from 
Alcaniz  ;  and,  after  some  hesitation  as  to  our  new  place  of 
abode,  they  sent  us  to  Teruel. 

We  had  to  make  our  way  there,  in  charge  of  the  inevi- 
table Guardia  Civil,  not  by  the  railway,  which  would  have 
taken  us  in  six  hours,  but  in  wretched  jolting  carts.  We 
were  forced  to  stop  for  the  night  at  Montalvan,  and  the 
whole  journey  took  thirty-two  hours. 

Our  stay  at  Teruel  may  be  divided  into  two  periods : 
the  first,  from  our  arrival  until  the  date  when  the  constitu- 
tional guarantees  were  re-established,  except  for  the 
provinces  of  Barcelona  and  Gerona ;  the  second,  from  that 
date  until  the  constitution  was  restored  throughout  all 
Spain. 

An  idea  of  our  situation  during  the  former  period  may 
be  gathered  from  the  following  protest  which  we  addressed 
to  a  certain  number  of  newspapers  : — 


156  FRANCISCO   FERRER 

"The  undersigned,  inhabitants  of  Barcelona,  exiled  to 
Alcaiiiz  and  then  to  Teruel,  and  reduced  to  an  extremity 
in  which  it  is  impossible  to  subsist,  claim  their  right  to 
live — a  right  which  cannot  be  suppressed  by  the  suspension 
of  the  constitutional  guarantees  or  by  the  Law  of  Public 
Order. 

"  We  live  in  a  house  which  is  watched  day  and  night 
by  policemen  and  Guardias  Civiles  ;  we  are  not  allowed 
to  go  out  alone  ;  .  .  .  every  tradesman  who  comes  to  us, 
and  even  the  postman,  must  be  accompanied  by  a  police 
officer.  In  the  street,  opposite  our  house,  a  booth  has 
been  erected  for  the  accommodation  of  our  jailors.  We 
can  neither  pay  nor  receive  visits.  Orders  have  been 
given  that  we  must  not  bow  to  any  one  in  the  street,  nor 
must  any  one  bow  to  us.  Our  door  is  closed  at  seven  in 
the  evening,  and  from  that  time,  as  though  the  drawbridge 
of  a  fortress  had  been  raised,  no  one  may  pass  it. 

"  In  this  situation,  we  can  neither  work  nor  seek  for 
work  :  we  can  earn  absolutely  nothing.  Up  to  the  present 
we  have  lived  on  certain  supplies  sent  us  by  our  families, 
at  the  cost  of  privation  and  wretchedness,  and  on  some 
gifts  from  our  friends.  We  have  before  our  eyes  the 
spectre  of  famine  and  abandonment. 

"  Our  condition  as  exiles  proclaims  our  innocence. 
There  is  no  accusation  against  us.  The  prisoner  is 
supplied  with  lodging  and  food,  and  is  permitted  to 
communicate  with  his  friends  ;  but  for  us  there  will  soon 
be  neither  lodging,  nor  bread,  nor  the  greeting  of  a  friend, 
nor  even  the  ordinary  sympathy  of  humanity.  .  .  . 

"  We  make  our  protest  to  public  opinion,  through  its 
organ,  the  press,  in  the  confidence  that  it  will  fulfil  its  duty. 

"Teruel,  September,  1909. 

"Jose  Casasola,  Cristobal  Litran,  Alfredo  Meseguer, 
Anselmo  Lorenzo,  Francisca  Concha,  Mariana  Lorenzo, 
Flora  Lorenzo,  Jose  Villafranca,  Mariano  Batllori,  Jos6 
Robles." 

The  signatures  of  Jose  Ferrer,  Maria  Fontcuberta,  and 


A  TIME   OF   ANGUISH  157 

Soledad  Villafranca  are  wanting,  because  they  were  at  that 
moment  in  prison,  where  they  passed  eight  days,  without 
any  reason  being  given  either  for  their  arrest  or  for  their 
release. 

Our  correspondence  was  scandalously  tampered  with  ; 
even  money  sent  to  us  in  registered  letters  was  abstracted. 
We  had  recourse  to  the  kindness  of  a  friend  who  posted 
our  letters  for  us  at  Valencia  or  at  Saragossa,  and  were 
thus  able  to  re-establish  some  relations  with  the  inter- 
national solidarity. 

After  the  partial  restoration  of  the  constitutional 
guarantees,  the  surveillance  of  the  Guardia  Civil  was 
suppressed,  but  not  that  of  the  police.  The  booth  of  our 
jailors  was  demolished,  in  consequence  of  a  protest  which 
we  published  in  the  local  press  ;  and  we  were  permitted 
to  speak  to  some  of  the  inhabitants  and  to  receive  some 

visits.  .  .  . 

At  the  time  of  Ferrer's  trial,  we  made  every  possible 
effort  to  place  our  testimony  before  the  court :  we  wrote 
letters  to  the  judge,  to  the  Defender,  to  the  press,  to 
influential  personages,  and  made  appeals  to  international 
solidarity  :  all  in  vain.  The  judicial  crime,  perfidiously 
planned,  was  accomplished,  Ferrer,  in  dying,  achieved  a 
glorious  place  in  history,  and  our  colony  of  exiles  remained 
plunged  in  desolation. 

Our  anguish,  our  sufferings,  our  pains  of  every  sort, 
formed  a  terrible  ordeal,  which  we  were  enabled  to  endure 
with  dignity  because  we  were  sustained  by  an  ideal,  and 
felt  ourselves  bound  together  like  a  veritable  family.  The 
memory  of  these  days  of  fraternity  in  persecution,  and  of 
grief  for  the  tragic  fate  of  our  heroic  friend,  now  presents 
itself  to  me  clothed  in  a  poetic  melancholy.  ...  It  was 
sad  and  it  was  beautiful. 

At  last,  with  the  fall  of  the  Conservatives,  and  the 
formation  of  the  Liberal  ministry,  we  began  to  look 
forward  to  the  end  of  our  exile.'     By  arrangement  with 

•  It  lasted,  in  all,  87  days.— W.  A. 


158  FRANCISCO   FERRER 

the  Committee  of  the  Republican  Club,  we  convoked  the 
people  of  Teruel  to  a  meeting,  in  order  to  make  ourselves 
known  to  them,  and  expound  our  sentiments,  our  thoughts, 
and  our  ideal. 

This  meeting  made  a  profound  sensation  at  Teruel. 
The  populace,  living  under  the  sway  of  a  peaceable 
routine,  lulled  to  sleep  in  their  heavy  quietude,  had  not 
the  least  suspicion  of  the  revolt  in  which  the  world  is 
rising  up  against  dogma,  authority,  and  property,  im- 
mobilized in  the  stagnant  waters  of  privilege. 

We  had  distributed  the  parts  in  advance,  so  that  each 
of  the  exiles  could  expound  his  own  tendencies.  ...  In 
my  turn,  after  declaring  myself  an  anarchist,  I  showed,  in 
property,  a  perpetual  usurpation.  There  is  a  universal 
property  which,  formed  by  the  gifts  of  nature,  and  the 
observation,  study,  and  work  of  the  discoverers,  thinkers, 
and  labourers  of  the  whole  world,  cannot  be  the  exclusive 
property  of  any  one,  but  belongs  to  all  by  natural  right, 
although  the  laws  say  the  contrary.  These  laws,  daughters 
of  the  Roman  Law,  divide  humanity  into  masters  and 
servants,  that  is  to  say  into  persons  and  things — an  anti- 
human  and  irrational  division,  which  persists  in  our  days 
in  republics  no  less  than  in  monarchies,  and  will  persist 
until  the  workers,  by  means  of  a  general  revolutionary 
strike,  break  up  states,  suppress  frontiers,  and  establish 
acracy,  or  in  other  words  the  absence  of  government. 

We  contrived  to  put  these  ideas  in  a  form  which  placed 
them  within  the  mental  range  of  our  audience ;  and  the 
eflfect  produced  was  surprising. 

We  had  our  revenge :  the  ideas  which  those  in  power 
had  sought  to  annihilate  in  Barcelona,  had  been  transported 
into  Lower  Aragon,  there  to  take  root.  Our  persecutors 
had  helped  on  our  propaganda. 

This  document  speaks  for  itself.  The  facts  set  forth 
are  fully  corroborated  by  two  others  of  the  little  company 
of  exiles  who  are  personally  known  to  me,  Jose  Ferrer  and 


PROPAGANDA  IN   EXILE  159 

Soledad  Villafranca.  As  for  the  opinions  expressed,  I 
have  thought  it  worth  while  to  quote  them  for  the  sake  of 
the  added  light  they  throw  upon  the  doctrines  which  pre- 
vailed in  the  Escuela  Moderna.  It  is  not  my  part  to 
defend  or  extenuate  these  doctrines,  or  to  discuss  the  due 
limits  of  social  self-defence  against  a  propaganda  of  dis- 
integration. What  I  have  to  point  out  is  that  it  was — 
nominally — not  for  his  share  in  disseminating  these  ideas 
that  Ferrer  was  shot,  but  for  his  active  participation,  as 
organizer  and  director,  in  the  Barcelona  riots.  If  he  was, 
in  fact,  innocent  of  that  crime,  it  is  no  defence  for  the 
action  of  the  Spanish  Government  to  declare  that  he  was 
guilty  of  something  else. 

Am  I  wrong  in  thinking  that  what  stands  out  from 
Anselmo  Lorenzo's  narrative  is  not  so  much  the  barbarism 
of  the  Government  action,  as  its  extraordinary  unintelli- 
gence  ?  The  authorities  seem  to  seize  every  opportunity  of 
putting  themselves  in  the  wrong.  They  make  martyrs  by 
the  most  high-handed  exercise  of  tyranny,  and  then  allow 
the  martyrs  to  advertise  their  martyrdom  in  the  public  press ! 
They  will  not  suffer  the  exiles  to  exchange  a  word  or  a 
bow  with  the  local  population  ;  and  lo !  before  we  know 
where  we  are,  the  exiles  are  holding  a  public  meeting  and 
preaching  anarchism  !  True,  there  had  in  the  meantime 
been  a  change  of  government ;  but  the  new  government 
was  certainly  no  more  friendly  to  anarchism  than  the  old, 
and  it  is  absurd  to  suppose  that  the  local  authorities  could 
not,  if  they  would,  have  put  a  stop  to  the  "  reunion."  The 
whole  episode  is  characteristic  and  luminous.  It  helps  us 
not  a  little  to  understand  the  darker  drama  which  was 
meanwhile  being  enacted  in  Barcelona.  There  was  not, 
as  I  read  the  case,  any  clever  villainy  behind  this  affair 
of   the    deportation,   but    only  an    instinctive,   blundering 


100  FRANCISCO  FERRER 

barbarism,  quite  incapable  of  looking  ahead  and  devising 
a  rationally  wicked  policy.     The  immediate  motive  of  the 
"banishment"  was  apparently  to  drive  Ferrer  from  his 
concealment  by  cutting  him  off  from  communication  with 
his  friends ;  and  afterwards  it  no  doubt  seemed  extremely 
convenient  to  have  every  one  who  could  give  evidence  in 
his  favour  safely  removed  to  a  distance  of  not  less  than 
245  kilometres.     But  what  a  shallow  view !     As  a  matter 
of  fact,  nothing  that  the  exiles  had  to  say  could  have  saved 
Ferrer,  before  such  a  court  as  the  Council  of  War.    Beyond 
speaking  to  his  presence  at  Mas  Germinal  on  one  occasion 
when  he  was  alleged  to  have  been  in  Barcelona,  they  really 
had  very  little  to  tell ;   and  their  evidence  could  always 
have  been  set  aside  as  manifestly  interested  and  untrust- 
worthy.    In  refusing  them   the   right   to   be   heard,  the 
authorities  were  gratuitously,  and  to  no  purpose,  placing  a 
weapon  in  the  hands  of  those  who,  as  they  must  have 
known,  were  certain  to  impugn  the  justice  of  their  pro- 
ceedings.    They  wantonly  overrode  the  most  elementary 
principles  of  fair  play,  when  they  had  nothing  to  gain  and 
a  great  deal  to  lose  by  so  doing.     But  this  is  not  astute- 
ness, not  Macchiavellianism.     It  is  only  a  sort  of  blindly 
malevolent  blundering.     We  shall  soon  come  to  a  still 
more  flagrant  instance  of  the  same  artlessness  in  cogging 
the  dice — the  same  simple-minded  ignoring  of  the  most 
elementary  principles,  I  will  not  say  of  justice,  but   of 
prudence — in  the  rewards  distributed  to  Ferrer's  captors. 

Having  thus  happily  disposed  of  the  occupants  of  Mas 
Germinal,  the  authorities  made  several  descents  upon  the 
house,  in  further  search  for  incriminating  documents.  On 
one  occasion,  about  August  27,  ten  policemen  and  gen- 
darmes took  possession  of  the  farm-house  for  three  days  and 
two  nights,  broke  open  the  floors  and  the  walls,  cut  the 


MAS   GERMINAL  RIFLED         161 

drain-pipes,  emptied  the  cisterns,  and  left  the  place  a 
wreck.  As  already  remarked,  the  traces  of  this  diligencia 
(that  is  the  expressive  Spanish  term)  were  visible  on  every 
hand  when  I  visited  Mas  Germinal  ten  months  later.  It 
is  quite  evident  that,  under  such  conditions,  the  require- 
ment of  the  law  that  search  shall  always  be  conducted  in 
the  presence  of  representatives  of  the  accused,  or  of  re- 
sponsible and  impartial  witnesses,  could  not  possibly  be 
fulfilled.  The  only  occupant  of  the  house  was  Mme. 
Villafranca's  mother  ;  and  it  can  scarcely  be  conceived  that 
she  kept  sleepless  watch  on  her  ten  visitors  for  sixty  hours. 
There  is  not  the  slightest  reason  to  presume  the  genuine- 
ness of  any  document  purporting  to  have  been  found  on 
this  occasion. 


M 


XIII 

THE  LEGEND  GROWS 

We  must  now  return  to  Barcelona,  and  trace  the  growth 
of  the  legend  connecting  Ferrer  with  the  revolt.  This 
task  is  greatly  facilitated  by  the  richly-documented 
chapter  entitled  "The  Snowball"  in  Dr.  Simarro's  monu- 
mental work. 

The  rumour  which  sent  Ferrer  into  hiding — that  he  had 
been  seen  leading  an  attack  on  a  convent  at  Premia — 
does  not  appear  to  have  got  into  the  newspapers.  But 
it  was  not  long  before  local  gossip  began  to  fasten  on  his 
name.  The  Conservative  Epoca  of  Madrid  published  on 
August  31  a  series  of  extracts  from  various  letters  received 
from  Barcelona,  one  of  the  paragraphs  running  as  follows : 
"It  is  believed  that  the  sadly  celebrated  {tristemente  celebre) 
Francisco  Ferrer  had  passed  a  month  in  Barcelona  with 
Soledad  Villafranca,  and  had  brought  with  him  much 
money.  It  is  added  that  money  circulated  in  abundance 
in  the  Casa  del  Pueblo,^  and  junkettings  took  place  on 
the  strength  of  it."  Appearing  in  Madrid  on  Tuesday 
the  3rd,  this  must  have  been  written  in  Barcelona  not 
later  than  Sunday  the  ist,  before  the  echoes  of  the  revolt 
had  quite  died  away.  On  Wednesday  the  4th  the  same 
paper  published  a  letter  from  its  Barcelona  correspondent, 
Don  Pascual  Zulueta,  containing  the  following  passage  : 

*  A  Lerrouxist-Republican  cafe  and  place  of  recreation  for  workmen— a 
sort  of  small  People's  Palace. 


THE  SNOWBALL  STARTED       163 

"  Some  one  arrived  here  with  money — some  suppose  it  to 
have  been  the  sadly  celebrated  Ferrer,  who  certainly  was 
in    Barcelona — and    (according  to    information   which   I 
believe  to  be  trustworthy)  on  one  single  day,  very  shortly 
before  the  tumults,  a  cheque  for  50,000  pesetas  [;^200o] 
was  cashed  at  the  local  branch  of  the  Credit  Lyonnais, 
the  money  being  distributed  that  night  at  the  Casa  del 
Pueblo."     These  two  paragraphs  evidently  represent  one 
and  the  same  rumour,  proceeding  from  one  and  the  same 
source.     So  far  as  Ferrer  is  concerned,  it  professes  to  be 
no  more  than  pure  conjecture.     Its  germ  is  probably  to 
be  found  in  the  report  that  money  was  unusually  plentiful 
at  the  Casa  del  Pueblo.     As  soon  as  that  was  believed, 
it    was  a  very  short    step   to    the    conjecture   that    the 
"  millionaire  anarchist "  Ferrer   had   supplied  the  sinews 
of  war.     Even  the  germ  of  the  story  is  probably  a  myth. 
It  has  never  been  proved  that  money  was  distributed  at 
the  Casa  del  Pueblo  or  anywhere  else ;  and  Don  Angel 
Ossorio,  as  we  have  seen  (p.  126)  expressly  declared  that 
there  was  no  sign  of  any  "  payment  of  insurgents."  *     But 
if  money  was  distributed  at  all,  it  certainly  was  not  by 
Ferrer.     If  he  had  drawn  a  large  cheque  just  before  the 
revolt,  the  prosecution  could  easily  have  proved  it ;   but 
it   made   no   attempt   to    do  anything   of  the   kind.     It 
appeared  at  the    trial   that   Ferrer's    bank  was   not   the 
Credit  Lyonnais  but  the  Banco  de  Espana.     Furthermore, 
Ferrer  had  been  for  some  time  at  feud  with  the  Lerrouxists, 
and  was  by  no  means  in  good  odour  at  the  Casa  del  Pueblo.^ 

'  Sr.  Garcia  Cortes,  secretary  of  the  Spanish  Socialist  party,  states  that  the 
Solidaridad  Obrera  wanted  to  send  delegates  to  Madrid  to  arrange  with  the 
Socialibt  directorate  for  a  general  strike  throughout  Spain,  but  could  not  do 
so  because  there  was  no  money  to  pay  for  their  tickets.  This  does  not  look 
as  though  Ferrer  or  any  one  else  had  subsidized  the  movement, 

«  See  pp.  135  and  205. 


164  FRANCISCO  FERRER 

Presently,  however,  the  rumour  began  to  "concrete 
itself,"  as  they  say  in  Spain.  The  Barcelona  correspondent 
of  a  Madrid  Ultramontane  paper,  El  Siglo  FuUiro,  con- 
tributed to  its  issue  of  August  9  a  number  of  paragraphs 
headed  "  Data  for  History  "  ;  and  this  was  one  of  them  : 
"  During  the  week,  Ferrer,  the  director  of  the  Escuela 
Moderna,  was  seen  several  times  in  the  streets,  and  once 
I  saw  him  captaining  a  group  in  front  of  the  Liceo 
[Theatre]  on  the  Ramblas."  This  correspondent  was  a 
certain  Colldefons,^  whose  evidence  became  the  corner- 
stone of  the  case  against  Ferrer.  We  shall  have  to 
examine  it  in  due  time  ;  for  the  present  it  is  enough  to 
say  that  this  clerical  journalist  did  not  know  Ferrer, 
"  except  from  photographs,"  but  "acquired  the  conviction 
that  it  must  be  he  from  hearing  passers-by  say  so." 

On  the  very  day  on  which  Sr.  Colldefons's  "data" 
appeared  in  Madrid,  there  arrived  in  Barcelona  no  less  a 
personage  than  Don  Javier  Ugarte,  Prosecutor  of  the 
Supreme  Court,  and  Auditor-General  of  the  Army,  com- 
missioned by  Sr.  Maura's  Government,  as  he  himself 
expressed  it,  "to  investigate  the  history  and  philosophy 
of  this  criminal  explosion  ;  to  appreciate  the  full  gravity 
of  the  evil ;  and  to  inspire  the  certainty  that  it  will  be 
remedied."  Sr.  Ugarte  is  a  noted  clerical,  and  holds, 
among  other  offices,  that  of  General  Secretary  of  the 
Catholic  Workmen's  Associations.  His  first  act  was  to 
announce  through  the  press  "  that  he  would  be  pleased  to 
receive  whatever  information  might  be  offered  him "  as 
to  the  events  of  the  Red  Week.  In  other  words,  he  made 
himself  a  general  receptacle  for  all  the  gossip  of  the 
city.     The  first   thing   we   hear   is   that   "the  Executive 

*  The  name  is  sometimes  spelt  "  Colldeforns  "  or  "  CoUdefrons " ;   but 
I  believe  "  CoUdefons  "  is  the  correct  form. 


A  NOBLE   GRANDEE  165 

Commission  of  the  Diocesan  Junta,  composed  of  72  Catholic 
Associations,  has  placed  its  information  at  his  service  "  ; 
and  the  next  is  that  he  has  had  a  consultation  with  the 
directorate  of  the  Committee  of  Social  Defence,  a  body- 
notoriously  composed  of  violent  reactionaries,  and  strongly 
tinged  with  Carlism. 

We   shall   presently   return   to   Sr.    Ugarte ;    for   the 
moment,  the  Committee  of  Social  Defence  takes  up  the 
running.     After   its    interview    with    the    Prosecutor,    it 
delegates  four  of  its  members  to  proceed  to  Madrid  and 
impress  upon  the  Government  its  views  as  to  the  necessity 
for  drastic  action.     The  quartette  sets   out  on   the  14th, 
and  on  the  i8th  the  Catholic  paper  El  Universo  publishes 
an  interview  with  one  of  them,  the   Pontifical  Count   of 
Santa  Maria  de  Pomes.     This  "  noble  grandee,"  as  he  is 
described,  lays  the  chief  responsibility  of  the  outbreak  at 
the  door  of  Sr.  Lerroux,  whom  he  declares  to  be  possessed 
by  the  devil.     But  on  being  asked  whether  the  Lerrouxists 
are   solely  responsible,  he    replies:   "By  no   means.      It 
was   not   for   nothing   that   Ferrer,   the  most   ill-omened 
{fiinestisimo)    Ferrer,  passed  near   Barcelona   during  the 
week  previous  to  the  first  days  of  the  impious  revolution. 
When  he  opens  his  mouth,  Freemasonry  and  international 
anarchism  open  their  hand  and  their  purse.     The  books 
of  the   Escuela   Modcrna   could    not   but   produce   their 
deleterious  fruits,  and  have   produced   them."     Here  we 
have  evidently  the  official  view  of  the  Committee  of  Social 
Defence  ;  and  on  what  is  it  based  }     The  Pontifical  Count 
himself  informs  us,  when  he  appears  as  a  witness  in  the 
trial  of  Emiliano  Iglcsias  and  others   accused    of  being 
"  instigators,  organizers,  and  directors  "  of  the  revolt,  that 
"he  can  give  no  information  beyond  what  popular  rumour 
asserted."     So  that  we  have  here  simply  a  variant  of  the 


166  FRANCISCO  FERRER 

legend   reported   by  Sr.  Zulueta,  the  worth  of  which  we 
have  already  estimated. 

Sr.  Ugarte,  as  we  have  seen,  arrived  in  Barcelona  on 
the  9th,  and  proceeded  to  take  counsel  with  two  of  the 
chief  Catholic  organizations  of  the  place.  Whom  else  he 
may  have  consulted  we  do  not  know  ;  but  he  summoned  a 
meeting  of  the  "judicial  authorities"  of  the  district  and 
"imposed  on  them  his  opinion"  that  the  events  of  July 
constituted  "  a  veritable  military  rebellion,"  and  that  cases 
arising  out  of  them  must  therefore  be  tried  by  military 
law.  The  result  of  these  consultations  and  discussions 
was  very  soon  manifest ;  for  on  the  17th,  only  eight  days 
after  Sr.  Ugarte's  arrival,  the  following  proclamation  was 
issued  by  "Don  Vicente  Lliviana^  y  Fernandez,  Com- 
mandant, Examining  Magistrate  of  the  Zone  of  recruit- 
ment and  reserve  of  Barcelona,  number  27  "  : — 

Has  absented  himself  from  the  district  of  Mongat,  in 
this  province,  where  he  was  residing  at  his  property  Mas 
Germinal,  Francisco  Ferrer  Guardia,  50  years  of  age, 
founder  of  the  Escuela  Moderna  which  used  to  be  carried 
on  in  this  city,  and  whose  other  personal  circumstances 
are  unknov/n,  accused  in  relation  to  the  cause  which,  by 
order  of  the  judicial  authority  of  the  region,  I  am  at 
present  preparing  against  the  instigators,  organizers,  and 
directors  of  the  breaches  of  public  order  which  took  place 
in  this  capital  between  the  25th  and  31st  of  last  July. 

In  virtue  of  the  jurisdiction  conceded  to  me  by  the 
Code  of  Military  Justice,  I  hereby  cite,  call  and  summon 
the  said  Ferrer  Guardia  to  present  himself  within  twenty 
days  counting  from  this  date,  before  this  court,  situated  in 
the  Parque  de  Artilleria,  that  his  answer  to  the  charges 

'  The  name  is  sometimes  given  as  Llivina.  I  follow  the  Process.  The 
expression  rendered  as  "Examining  Magistrate"  is  "Juez  instructor"  or 
Juge  d" Instruction, 


UGARTE'S   INTERVIEWS  167 

may  be  heard ;  on  pain  of  being  declared  rebel  if  he  does 
not  appear  within  the  stated  term,  and  incurring  whatever 
pains  and  penalties  the  law  provides. 

Ferrer  asserted  that  when  he  saw  this  summons  in  the 
newspapers,  he  thought  of  obeying  it,  but  was  persuaded 
not  to  do  so.  It  will  be  noted  that  this  was  before  the 
banishment  of  his  family  to  Teruel. 

Having  finished  his  historical  and  philosophical  re- 
searches in  Barcelona,  Don  Javier  Ugarte  returned  to 
Madrid,  and  hastened  to  pay  his  respects  to  the  King. 
On  leaving  the  palace,  he  was  beset  by  interviewers, 
demanding  his  impressions  of  things  in  Barcelona. 
Almost  identical  interviews  appeared  in  several  of  the 
papers.  In  the  Epoca  (Conservative)  of  August  28, 
the  point  on  which  Sr.  Ugarte  chiefly  insists  is  that  the 
ordinary  or  civil  law  has  nothing  to  say  in  this  matter, 
which  must  inevitably  be  handled  by  the  military  tribunals. 
Then  he  adds  :  "  One  of  the  initiators,  and  a  director  of 
groups,  was  Ferrer,  who  in  the  days  of  the  movement  was 
in  Barcelona,  and  afterwards  at  Mongat,  where  he  has  a 
property,  and  from  the  latter  point  he  irradiated  the  move- 
ment, disappearing  soon  afterwards."  In  the  Iniparcial, 
the  Prosecutor  is  represented  as  stating  that  more  than 
1000  prosecutions  are  pending  in  Barcelona,  and  in  the 
rest  of  the  province  at  least  as  many  more.  Then  the 
reporter  proceeds :  "  Sr.  Ugarte  holds  the  proof  that 
the  organizer  and  soul  of  the  sedition  was  Ferrer.  Many 
persons  saw  him  captaining  seditious  groups,  not  only  in 
Barcelona  first,  but  afterwards  in  other  places,  such  as 
Mataro."  This  reporter  also  uses  the  phrase,  evidently 
Ugarte's  own,  as  to  Ferrer  "irradiating"  the  movement 
through  the  district.  In  another  paper,  the  Liberal,  a  new 
detail  is  added  :  "  The  principal  fomcntcr  of  the  movement 


168  FRANCISCO  FERRER 

was  Ferrer,  During  the  critical  period  he  captained  the 
groups  in  Barcelona;  afterwards  he  repaired  to  Mongat, 
where  he  has  a  property,  and  thence  irradiated  the  move- 
ment to  various  surrounding  villages.  He  has  at  present 
disappeared,  having  taking  refuge  abroad." 

The  reader  must  at  once  be  struck  by  the  fact  that 
the  main  point  in  Sr.  Ugarte's  mind  is  evidently  the 
Colldefons  statement  that  Ferrer  was  seen  "  captaining  a 
group "  on  the  Ramblas  ;  but  this  single  allegation  of  a 
single  incident  has  been  multiplied,  and  he  is  now  repre- 
sented as  "  directing  groups,"  "  captaining  the  groups," 
and  seen  to  do  so  by  "  many  persons,"  not  only  in 
Barcelona  but  at  Mataro,  where  he  never  was  at  all. 
Further,  we  must  note  that  Sr.  Ugarte  has  clearly  been 
informed  of  some  at  least  of  the  evidence  as  to  Ferrer's 
doings  at  Masnou  and  Premia,  which  we  shall  find  the 
prosecution  representing  as  most  damnatory.  On  its 
value  nothing  need  be  said  at  present ;  but  I  must  draw 
the  reader's  attention  to  one  apparently  trifling  point. 
The  statement  in  El  Liberal  that  Ferrer  has  taken  refuge 
abroad,  may  have  been  added  as  a  matter  of  common 
knowledge,  by  the  reporter ;  but  at  all  events  Sr.  Ugarte 
evidently  said  nothing  to  the  contrary.  He  was  careful  not 
to  let  out,  what  he  must  have  known  for  a  full  week,  that 
Ferrer  was  now  believed  to  be  in  hiding  near  Barcelona. 
It  was  clearly  the  policy  of  the  authorities  to  keep  their 
information  dark,  and  encourage  the  belief  that  he  had 
escaped.  We  shall  find  reason  to  think  (p.  219)  that  this 
policy  had  important  consequences  which  may  or  may  not 
have  been  foreseen  and  desired. 

That  the  prosecution  of  Ferrer  was  initiated  by  Sr. 
Ugarte,  after  his  consultations  with  the  Diocesan  Junta 
and  the  Committee  of  Social  Defence,  can  scarcely  be 


THE   SNOWBALL  GROWS         169 

doubted.  It  is  sometimes  said  that  the  Prosecutor  of  the 
Supreme  Court  was  cited  as  a  witness ;  but  this  is  not 
literally  true.  It  was  not  till  Ferrer  had  been  tried  and 
sentenced  that  the  Auditor-General  of  the  4th  Region,  in 
his  report  to  the  Captain-General  recommending  the 
ratification  of  the  sentence,  averred  that  Ferrer's  leader- 
ship of  the  rebellion  had  been  proved  by  the  testimony  of 
fifteen  witnesses,  "  and  by  the  declaration  of  the  most 
excellent  Prosecutor  of  the  Supreme  Court,  which  reflects 
not  only  his  personal  opinion,  always  most  valid  {siempre 
valiosisima),  but  that  of  numerous  representatives  of  the 
most  important  elements  in  Barcelona,  who  came  forward 
to  expound  their  impressions  before  that  high  functionary, 
who,  representing  the  Government,  remained  for  a  month 
[in  reality  seventeen  days]  in  Barcelona,  studying  the 
revolutionary  movement  in  Catalonia."  This  candid 
statement  sums  up  the  facts  very  accurately.  It  was  the 
"  personal  opinion,  siempre  valiosisijna,"  of  Sr.  Ugarte, 
and  the  "  impressions  of  important  elements  "  in  Barcelona, 
that  hurried  Ferrer  to  his  doom.  Who  the  important 
elements  were,  we  now  know  pretty  well. 

The  interviews  with  Ugarte  appeared  in  the  Madrid 
papers  of  August  28.  In  his  letter  to  Mr,  Heaford 
from  the  Carcel  Celuiar,  Ferrer  says :  "  I  suffered  much 
on  reading  in  the  papers  the  accusations  brought  against 
mc,  without  being  able  to  reply  or  daring  to  present 
myself.  At  last  I  could  stand  it  no  longer  when,  about 
the  29th  or  30th  of  August,  I  read  that  Ugarte,  the 
Prosecutor  of  the  Supreme  Court,  had  declared,  as  a 
consequence  of  his  inquiries  in  Barcelona,  that  I,  Ferrer, 
was  the  director  of  the  revolutionary  movement.  Upon 
that  I  made  up  my  mind  to  present  myself  to  the  magis- 
trate who  had  summoned  me,  and  I  quitted  my  hiding 


170  FRANCISCO  FERRER 

place."  This  he  did  on  the  night  of  August  31,  intend- 
ing to  walk  about  seven  miles  to  a  station  on  the  inland 
railway  line  to  Barcelona.  On  the  coast  line  he  was  well 
known,  on  the  inland  line  unknown  ;  so  that,  by  choosing 
the  latter  route,  he  thought  he  had  a  better  chance  of 
reaching  Barcelona  unrecognized,  and  presenting  himself, 
of  his  own  free  will,  to  Don  Vicente  Lliviana. 

Can  we  accept  Ferrer's  own  account  of  these  incidents, 
and  believe  that  he  intended  to  give  himself  up?  That 
must  depend  entirely  on  our  view  of  his  character.  In 
favour  of  his  statement  we  have  the  fact  that  he  certainly 
expressed  this  intention  to  the  friends  who  had  harboured 
him,  and  whom  he  had  no  motive  in  deceiving.  We  may 
also  remember  that  when  he  was  "wanted"  after  the 
Morral  outrage,  he  voluntarily  presented  himself  to  the 
police.  Against  this  we  have  to  put  the  undeniable  fact 
that  the  inland  line  "  on  which  he  was  not  known  "  would 
have  carried  him  to  France  as  readily  as  to  Barcelona. 
But,  knowing  that  the  hue  and  cry  was  out  after  him, 
would  he  be  likely  to  take  the  risk  of  attempting  to  cross 
the  frontier  ?  And  that,  moreover,  with  absolutely  no 
baggage,  a  circumstance  extremely  apt  to  attract  atten- 
tion ?  On  the  whole,  the  weight  of  probability  seems  to 
be  in  favour  of  his  statement ;  but  the  matter  is  not 
susceptible  of  proof. 


FERRER'S    FJIRTHPLACE. 


THE   SCENE   OF    FERRER'S   ARREST. 

(Close  to  his  Birthplace.) 


{.Tofacc p.  \-]i. 


XIV 

CAPTURE  AND  IMPRISONMENT 

It  must  have  been  getting  on  towards  midnight  on 
August  31  when  Ferrer,  attired  in  a  h'ght  summer  suit 
and  a  straw  hat,  set  out  from — wherever  he  was — to  walk 
to  the  nearest  station  on  the  inland  line.  His  baggage 
consisted  of  a  hand  camera  and  an  umbrella.  He  cannot 
have  gone  more  than  two  miles  when,  in  passing  through 
his  native  village  of  Alella,  he  was  accosted  by  the  so-eno, 
or  night-watchman.  He  proceeded  on  his  way,  telling 
the  man  that  he  did  not  require  his  company  ;  but  he 
could  not  shake  him  off.  Presently,  at  a  point  just 
outside  the  village,  and  close  to  Ferrer's  birthplace,  they 
came  upon  four  of  the  somaten  of  the  district.  The 
somaten  Ferrer  himself  describes  as  "  a  body  of  citizens 
armed  to  defend  their  property  against  thieves ;  but  at 
need  they  place  themselves  at  the  service  of  reactionary 
governments."  Perhaps  they  may  most  shortly  be 
described  as  a  village  vigilance-committee.  These  men 
stopped  Ferrer,  and,  not  at  first  recognizing  him,  demanded 
his  papers.  He  produced  a  document  which  seems  to 
have  had  some  relation  to  an  Esperanto  Congress  soon 
to  be  held  in  Barcelona;  at  any  rate  he  made  some 
mention  of  this  Congress.  They  replied  that  the  "  papers  " 
they  required  were  some  sort  of  passport  or  identification- 
sheet  ;  and  this  he  could  not  produce.  It  is  generally 
reported  that  he  then  begged  them  to  let  him  go  on  his 


172  FRANCISCO   FERRER 

way,  as  he  was  engaged  in  an  amorous  adventure  and 
was  pursued  by  an  irate  husband.  It  is,  of  course, 
possible  that  he  said  something  of  the  kind  ;  but  I  very 
much  doubt  it,  and  will  give  my  reasons. 

Ferrer's  own  statement  in  his  deposition  is  that  he  said 
he  could  not  tell  the  men  where  he  came  from  "  because  it 
was  a  delicate  matter "  {por  ser  un  asunto  delicadd) — 
meaning,  obviously,  that  it  was  a  point  of  honour  not  to 
give  a  full  account  of  himself,  and  implying  an  appeal  to 
them  not  to  put  constraint  on  a  man  in  a  difficult  position. 
The  remark  was  a  very  natural  one ;  and  I  think  there  is 
good  reason  to  believe  that  from  these  words,  interpreted 
in  vulgar  minds,  the  legend  of  the  amorous  adventure  has 
grown.  We  can  actually  watch  its  growth.  In  the  first 
report  of  the  capture  that  appeared  in  the  newspapers  (see, 
for  instance,  El Imparcial,  September  2,  1909),  the  "official 
version  "  of  the  incident  runs  thus  :  "  A  sereno  asked  him 
where  he  was  going,  and  Ferrer  replied  :  *  An  affair  of 
petticoats '  {Cuestion  de  faldas).^'  The  step  from  asunto 
delicado  to  cuestion  de  faldas  is,  to  some  minds,  very  short 
and  easy  ;  and,  in  later  accounts,  the  cuestion  de  faldas 
takes  on  much  more  detailed,  and  mutually  inconsistent, 
shapes.  One  narrative  states  that  he  "begged  them  to 
let  him  go,  saying  that  it  was  imperatively  necessary  that 
he  should  reach  Barcelona,  because  if  he  did  not  the 
honour  of  a  lady  residing  in  Alella  would  be  compro- 
mised." The  most  developed  form  is  given  to  the  legend 
by  Don  Mariano  Bernadas  (of  whom  we  shall  presently 
hear  more),  who  stated  in  his  deposition  that  Ferrer 
"  lowering  his  voice,  said  that  he  had  had  an  amorous 
rendezvous  with  a  married  woman,  and  that,  the  husband 
having  learnt  of  it,  he  must  get  out  of  the  way."  The 
point  is  trifling,  but  all  these  later  versions  seem  to  me 


THE  ARREST  173 

clearly  to  be  perversions  of  Ferrer's  simple  appeal  to  his 
captors  not  to  press  him  for  explanations.  It  is  worth 
noting  that,  when  Ferrer  made  his  statement,  he  almost 
certainly  had  no  knowledge  of  the  form  which  had  been 
given  to  the  incident  by  Bernadas  and  others. 

All  accounts  agree  in  showing  that  a  considerable  time 
elapsed  before  Ferrer  was  recognized.  Apparently  he  was 
not  a  familiar  figure  in  his  native  village  ;  and  he  is  said, 
moreover,  to  have  shaved  off  the  moustache  and  chin- 
beard  which  he  usually  wore.^  Nevertheless,  if  the 
villagers  had  been  on  the  look-out  for  Ferrer,  hoping  and 
expecting  to  capture  him,  the  idea  that  this  must  be  he 
would  certainly  have  occurred  to  them  at  once.  We  have 
here,  then,  another  proof  that  the  authorities  had  kept 
carefully  secret  the  fact,  known  to  them  twelve  days 
earlier,  that  he  had  not  escaped  to  France. 

At  last  the  before-mentioned  Bernadas  looked  him  in 
the  face  and  said  in  Catalan,  "  Que  tanta  comedia  !  Tu 
ets  el  Quico  de  Cal  Boter"— "Why  all  this  pretence! 
You  are  the  Quico  [diminutive  of  Francisco]  of  the  Casa 
Boter  " — the  name  of  Ferrer's  birthplace. 

'  There  is,  however,  something  far  from  clear  in  the  story  of  his  having 
tried  to  disguise  himself  by  shaving.  In  Brissa's  Revoliuion  de  Julio^  on 
p.  264,  there  appears  a  photograph  of  a  clean-shaven  man,  purporting  to  be 
that  of  Ferrer  "taken  the  day  after  his  imprisonment."  But  it  is,  to  me, 
quite  impossible  to  recognize  his  features  ;  and,  moreover,  the  man,  whoever 
he  may  be,  has  abundant  hair,  whereas  Ferrer  was  nearly  bald.  The  hair  has 
rather  the  appearance  of  a  wig  ;  but  it  is  nowhere  stated  that  Ferrer  resorted 
to  this  means  of  disguise.  On  the  other  hand,  Lesueur  and  Normandy  in 
Ferrer,  rilomme  et  son  (Euvre  (facing  p.  33),  publish  an  evidently  genuine 
snapshot  photograph  of  "  Ferrer's  arrival  at  the  Model  Prison"  in  which  we 
see  him,  handcuffed,  jumping  off  the  prison  van  ;  and,  though  his  head  is 
somewhat  bent,  we  can  clearly  discern  his  usual  moustache  and  beard.  As 
Ferrer  never  left  the  prison  until  he  was  conveyed  to  Montjuich,  this  snapshot 
must  date  from  September  i.  In  the  photograph  of  the  trial,  the  moustache 
and  beard  are  unmistakable  ;  but  it  is  explained  that  they  had  grown  again  in 
the  five  weeks'  interval. 


174  FRANCISCO  FERRER 

Of  the  events  which  followed  we  have  Ferrer's  own 
story  in  letters  to  his  friends.  Perhaps  the  best  and  fullest 
account  is  that  which  he  sent  to  Mr.  Heaford.  I  have 
already  made  more  than  one  quotation  from  this  invaluable 
letter ;  and  I  now  let  him  take  up  the  tale  of  what  followed 
his  recognition. 


'&' 


Of  the  four  men,  two  were  very  hostile,  especially  one 
who  had  played  with  me  as  a  boy,  named  Bernadas,  and 
nicknamed  Miralta.     He  tied  my  arms  very  tightly,  and 
threatened  several  times  to  kill  me,  pointing  his  carbine  at 
me,  and  saying  that  he  had  heard  it  said  everywhere,  and 
had  read  in  the  papers,  that  I  was  the  wickedest  man  in 
the  world.     It  was  now  one  in  the  morning,  and  they  took 
me  to  the  Town    Hall,  accompanied   by  others   of  the 
somaten  who  joined  us,  all  known  to  me,  as  being  of  the 
same  village.     We  remained  at  the  Town  Hall  until  seven, 
and  during  that  time  we  discussed  politics,  religion,  and 
sociology,    for  among   them  was   a  young  man    of   fair 
education.     I  felt  at  my  ease  after  five  tongue-tied  weeks, 
during  which  I  dared  not  talk  out  loud,  or  cough,  or  some- 
times even  breathe,  for  fear  of  being  discovered.     At  one 
time  I  felt  thirsty,  and  asked  for  some  cold  water  to  drink. 
They  brought  me  a  splendid  dripping  water-jar,  a  pleasure 
to  see.     I  asked  Bernadas  to  untie  me  in  order  that  I 
might  drink.     He  refused.     I  pointed  out  to  him  that  I 
was  not  armed,  and  that  there  were  more  than  a  dozen  of 
them  with  their  carbines.      He  still  refused,  offering  to 
hold  the  jar  to  my  lips.     That  I,  in  my  turn,  refused,  and 
he  made  them  carry  off  the  jar  without  my  being  able  to 
touch  it !     Then  I  resumed  the  conversation,  commenting 
on  this  inquisitorial  incident,  and  explaining  to  them  that 
when  men  were  once  imbued  with  the  ideas  propagated  by 
the  Escuela  Moderna,  there  would  be  never  a  Bernadas  in 
the  world,  pas  ineme  pour  medecine. 

Arrived  at  Barcelona  about  half-past  eight,  I  was  taken 


THE  FOURTEEN   FRANC   SUIT     175 

to  the  presence  of  the  Governor/  Crespo  Azorin,  who 
received  me  politely,  and  confined  himself  to  asking  me 
where  I  had  been  concealed.  I  replied  that  he  must 
excuse  me  if  my  sense  of  obligation  to  the  family  which 
had  treated  me  so  well  prevented  me  from  betraying  them. 
He  replied  that  though  he  understood  my  delicacy,  he 
could  not  excuse  the  family  for  its  failure  of  respect  for 
the  law.  I  rejoined  that  in  my  humble  opinion  this 
family  had  not  failed  in  respect  for  the  law,  as  it  was  sure 
of  my  innocence.  Then  he  made  me  a  little  speech  in  a 
very  lofty  style,  maintaining  that  the  reading  of  the  works 
published  by  the  Escuela  Moderna  might  well  be  one  of 
the  principle  sources  of  the  troubles.  Therefore  I  was 
guilty  ! 

After  his  brief  interview  with  the  Governor,  he  was 
passed  on  to  the  central  police  station,  and  there  stripped 
and  subjected  to  the  Bertillon  system  of  measurements, 
etc.  This  done,  not  a  single  stitch  of  his  clothing  was 
returned  to  him,  but  he  was  rigged  out  from  head  to  foot 
in  "  reach-me-down  "  garments  ridiculously  too  small  for 
him,  with  what  he  calls  an  "  apache "  cap.  The  under- 
lings among  his  jailors  were  themselves  surprised  at  this 
unexampled  proceeding.  He  remonstrated  against  it  in 
vain,  and  made  public  protest  at  his  trial.  Can  we  believe 
that  the  authorities  deliberately  sought  to  prejudice  him 
by  making  him  look  grotesque  ?  It  is  almost  incredible  ; 
and  yet,  what  else  can  have  been  their  motive  ?  It  was 
not  economy,  for  the  manoeuvre  cost  the  Treasury  (by 
Ferrer's  own  estimate)  at  least  fourteen  francs.  He  went 
tohis  death  in  his  four  teen-franc  suit. 

Arrived  at  the  Carcel  Celular,  he  was  not  only  "  incom- 

•  He  has  before  stated  that  he  asked  his  captors  to  take  him  to  the  examin- 
ing commandant  (Don  Vicente  Lliviana),  but  that  they  inbisted  on  conveying 
him  to  the  Civil  Governor. 


176  FRANCISCO  FERRER 

municated  "  (that  is  to  say,  placed  in  secret  confinement), 
but  he  was  assigned  a  cell — he,  an  untried  man — of  the 
class  devoted  to  riguroso  castigo,  or  rigorous  punishment. 
This  is  his  description  of  it,  in  the  same  letter  to  Heaford — 

They  put  me  in  a  repugnant  cell,  fetid,  cold,  damp, 
without  air  or  light,  in  the  underground  region  of  the 
prison,  where  so  rotten  an  atmosphere  prevails  that  in 
descending  to  it  you  can't  help  turning  your  head  away. 
In  this  cell  (8  feet  by  1 3)  there  is  a  plank  bed,  a  palliasse, 
a  counterpane,  and  a  sheet — all  filthy,  disgusting.  A  pan 
for  refuse  and  a  jar  of  drinking-water.  Impossible  to 
sleep  on  account  of  the  cold  and  the  little  animals  of  all 
sorts  which  swarmed,  and  which,  on  the  first  night,  attacked 
me  at  every  point.  I  took  the  precaution  afterwards  of 
leaving  crumbs  of  bread  in  the  four  corners,  so  that  the 
beetles  left  me  in  peace  ;  not  so  the  other  beasts.  For 
food,  soup  twice  a  day,  always  the  same,  made  with  chick- 
peas {garbansos)  in  the  morning,  and  with  haricots  in  the 
evening,  served  in  such  darkness  that  it  was  very  difficult 
to  pick  out  the  lumps  of  rancid  bacon  which  almost  made 
me  sick.  It  needed  a  good  stomach  like  mine  to  resist 
this,  and  a  strong  will  not  to  be  cast  down.  I  asked  for 
a  basin  and  water  so  as  to  be  able  to  wash  at  least  my 
hands  and  face.  My  request  was  granted  after  six  days. 
I  asked  for  soap,  but  as  the  police  had  kept  all  my  money 
I  could  not  get  any,  until  I  protested  so  much  that  at  last 
the  Governor  of  the  prison,  Don  Benito  Nieves,  a  charming 
person,  gave  me  a  piece  of  his  own,  and  then  made  me  a 
present  of  a  cake.  To  combat  the  cold  and  the  tedium  of 
not  being  able  to  read,  or  talk,  or  see  any  one,  I  paced  up 
and  down  my  cell,  like  a  wild  animal,  until  I  perspired. 
When  I  saw  that  my  incommunication  was  not  soon  to  end. 
I  asked,  on  September  11,  for  a  change  of  linen  (I  had  been 
in  prison  since  the  ist),  for  I  could  not  endure  to  live  in 
such  filth,  upon  me  and  around  me.  They  gave  me  clean 
linen  on  the  23rd  ! 


"AUSTERE   SEVERITY"  177 

My  incommunication  was  suspended  on  October  i/ 
and  the  magistrate  said  that  I  might  make  what  use 
I  pleased  of  the  money  which  had  been  found  in  my 
possession.  I  at  once  asked  for  letter-paper  and  for  news- 
papers, and  I  wrote  out  a  telegram  for  Soledad,  the  cost  of 
which  the  Administrator  undertook  to  advance  until  the 
money  was  received  from  the  magistrate.  Yesterday  the 
telegram  was  returned  to  me — it  had  been  sent,  by  a  mis- 
take on  the  part  of  the  Director,  to  Huesca — and  I  was 
told  that  I  could  not  have  it  retransmitted  to  Teruel 
(where  the  magistrate  tells  me  that  my  family  now  is) 
because  he  (the  magistrate)  has  not  deposited  any  money 
for  me.  Thus  I  cannot  have  any  newspapers  either,  can 
learn  nothing  of  what  is  going  on.  Yesterday  was  an 
accursed  day !  Not  to  be  able  to  send  so  much  as  a  single 
word  to  Soledad  and  to  my  friends !  I  won't  tell  you  of 
the  new  discomforts  of  my  new  abode,  in  which,  though  it 
is  true  I  have  a  little  sun  and  sufficient  light,  I  have  also 
so  many  little  companions  that  I  have  begun  a  war 
of  extermination  in  which  I  doubt  whether  I  shall  be 
victorious. 

He  then  goes  on  to  speak  briefly  of  the  different 
examinations  he  has  undergone — a  matter  with  which  we 
shall  have  to  deal  at  length  in  the  following  chapter.  The 
letter  ends — 

The  rest  another  time,  my  dear  friends.  I  am  tired 
now,  and  my  little  friends  of  the  cell  arc  beginning  to  take 
unfair  advantage  of  the  peace  in  which  I  have  left  them 
for  so  long.  They  are  even  coming  to  see  what  I  am 
doing  on  this  paper.  ...  I  forgot  to  tell  you  ;that  they 
refused  to  give  me  back  a  tooth-brush  which  I  had  with 
me,  two  pocket  handkerchiefs,  or,  in  fact,  anything  belong- 
ing to  me. 

Ferrer,  said  El  Universo,  had  been  handed  over  to  the 

•  The  letter  is  dated  October  3. 

N 


178  FRANCISCO  FERRER 

austera  severidad  of  the  military  tribunals.  Was  it  part  of 
that  austere  severity  to  prevent  him  from  brushing  his 
teeth  ? 

This  letter  is  important  in  more  ways  than  one.  It 
not  only  shows  the  quiet  heroism  of  the  man,  and  the 
spirit  of  rancour  in  which  he  was  treated  :  it  also  gives  us 
a  glimpse  of  a  Spanish  prison  which  is  not  without  signifi- 
cance when  we  find  that  the  most  important — almost  the 
only  important — witnesses  for  the  prosecution  were  arrested 
for  complicity  in  the  disturbances,  and  were  released  on 
giving  their  evidence.  To  put  a  man  in  such  a  cell  as  this 
is  almost  equivalent  to  the  application  of  peine  forte  et 
dure  ;  and  what  is  the  worth  of  evidence  so  extracted  ? 


XV 

PROCEDURE    AND    PRELIMINARIES 

Ferrer  being  captured,  how  was  he  to  be  tried  ?  On  that 
everything  depended. 

A  leading  Catholic  paper,  El  Universo,  in  an  article 
published  immediately  before  the  capture,  manifested 
grave  apprehensions  lest  he  should  once  more,  as  in  the 
Madrid  trial  of  1907,  slip  through  the  fingers  of  a  civil 
tribunal.  These  civil  tribunals,  it  remarked,  were  in  the 
habit  of  "insisting  on  clear,  precise,  and  decisive  proofs 
of  guilt "  ;  and  it  pointed  out  the  superior  convenience  of 
military  and  naval  Courts  of  Honour,  which  "  do  not 
require  to  subject  themselves  to  concrete  proofs,  but  are 
satisfied  with  a  moral  conviction,  formed  in  the  conscience 
of  those  who  compose  them." 

The  alarm  of  El  Universo  was  groundless.  It  had 
apparently  forgotten  the  Ley  de  Jurisdicciones  —  Law  of 
Jurisdictions — passed  in  1905  by  Moret's  Liberal  minis- 
try, with  the  aid  and  countenance  of  the  Conservatives. 
Under  this  remarkable  act,  every  offence  which  concerns 
the  Army,  the  Fatherland,  or  the  Flag,  is  to  be  tried 
by  a  military  court  and  under  military  law  !  That 
is  to  say,  one  of  the  parties  in  the  case  is  to  sit  on 
the  Bench  and  try  the  other  party.  If  I  am  rightly 
informed,  the  law  was  specially  designed  to  enable  the 
army  to  chastise  promptly  and   effectually  the  audacity 


180  FRANCISCO   FERRER 

of  certain  journalists  who  had  attacked  it.  But  it  was 
very  easy  to  make  the  riots  a  "military  rebellion"  and 
to  bring  everything  connected  with  them  under  the  Law 
of  Jurisdictions.  Nor  can  it  be  said  that  this  was  a 
straining  of  the  law.  As  the  whole  trouble  had  grown 
out  of  the  system  of  conscription  and  the  calling  out  of 
the  reservists,  it  certainly  was  a  matter  "concerning  the 
Army."  There  was  no  illegality,  then,  in  handing  Ferrer 
over  to  military  justice.  It  was  not  even  a  measure  of 
exception  due  to  the  State  of  Siege.  That  had  been 
discontinued  on  August  17. 

What  is  the  procedure  of  a  Spanish  Military  Tribunal  ? 
The  rules  which  govern  it  are  set  forth  (not  quite  fully  or 
frankly,  however)  at  the  end  of  the  official  version  of  the 
P'errer  trial.^ 

The  "  Juicio  Ordinario "  is  called  "  ordinary "  in 
contradistinction  to  the  "Juicio  Sumarfsimo,"  or  drum- 
head court-martial,  which  disposes  of  you  with  the  least 
possible  ceremony.  The  "  Ordinary  Process  "  falls  into 
three  parts,  the  "  Sumario,"  "  Plenario,"  and  "Vista 
Publica."  For  the  first  two  terms  I  do  not  think  there 
is  any  English  equivalent.  The  "  Sumario  "  is  practically 
what  the  French  call  the  instmciion — the  private  exami- 
nation of  the  prisoner  and  of  witnesses  by  the  juge 
d' instruction,  or  examining  magistrate — of  course,  in  this 
case,  a  soldier.  The  first  rule  of  the  "  Sumario "  has 
certainly  much  to  recommend  it — 

Before  proceedings  can  be  directed  against  a  person, 
there  must  appear  some  charges  against  him  (Article  421). 

The  only  other  rule  that  calls  for  special  notice  is  this : 
"  Domiciliary  searches  must  be  conducted  in  the  presence 
of  those  interested,  or  of  a  member  of  the  family,  or  of  two 

'  See  Appendix,  p.  322. 


THE   PLENARIO  181 

witnesses  (Article  511)."    We  have  seen  how  this  rule  was 
observed  at  Mas  Germinal, 

When  we  come  to  the  second  stage  of  the  process,  the 
first  rule  that  meets  us  is  as  follows :  "  The  Plenario  is 
public  (Article  540),"  If  this  means  anything,  it  means 
that  there  is  a  public  session  of  some  sort ;  and  we  find  that 
at  the  Plenario  of  the  case  against  Emiliano  Iglesias  and 
others  (of  which  more  anon)  an  audience  must  have  been 
present,  for  a  statement  attributed  to  one  of  the  witnesses 
called  forth  "  Great  laughter  among  the  public."  ^  But  in 
the  case  of  Ferrer  I  cannot  find  that  any  public  session 
was  ever  held,  before  the  final  "Vista  Publica."  The 
second  rule  is:  "The  accused  himself  names  his  defender 
(Article  453)";  but  it  is  not  stated  that  he  is  required  to 
choose  his  defender  from  a  list  of  officers  which  is  handed 
to  him.  Note,  too,  that  during  the  Sumario,  while  the 
evidence  is  being  taken,  he  has  no  defender  or  adviser 
of  any  sort.  In  the  Plenario  he  may  demand,  and  the 
Examining  Commandant  may,  at  his  discretion,  permit, 
a  "ratification  of  witnesses,"  which  I  take  to  imply  a 
re-examination  ;  but  there  seems  to  have  been  nothing 
of  the  sort  in  Ferrer's  case.  The  Defender,  it  would 
appear,  never  saw  a  single  witness,  much  less  had 
any  opportunity  for  cross-examination.  P'errcr  himself, 
during  the  period  of  the  Sumario,  was  "  confronted  "  with 
four  of  the  witnesses — four  out  of  fifty  or  sixty — but  the 
proceedings  were  confined  to  affirmation  on  their  part  and 
denial  on  his.  Of  anything  like  cross-examination  there  is 
no  trace.  Ferrer  had  very  likely  no  skill  in  that  peculiar 
art  ;  and  had  he  possessed  skill  there  is  nothing  to  show 
that  he  would  have  been  allowed  to  exercise  it.'^ 

*  Simarro,  El  Proceso  Ferrer,  vol.  i.  p.  312. 

^  Yet  Mr.  Belloc   {Dublin  Review,  April,   1 9 10)   affirms  that  Ferrer  had 


182  FRANCISCO  FERRER 

We  come  now  to  the  "  Vista  Publica,"  the  public  trial. 
The  court  is  a  "  Council  of  War,"  composed  of  a  colonel 
(the  President)  and  six  captains.  Defenders  of  the  Council 
of  War  make  a  great  point  of  the  fact  that  these  officers 
are  "designated  in  an  automatic  manner,"  which  means, 
no  doubt,  that  they  serve  in  some  sort  of  rotation. 
This  may  be  a  safeguard  against  any  "  packing "  of  the 
Court,  but  it  also  shows  that  no  special  intelligence  or 
fitness  for  judicial  duties  is  demanded  of  its  members.  The 
Council  is  assisted  by  an  Assessor — an  officer  who  is 
supposed  to  possess  some  special  familiarity  with  military 
law. 

At  the  opening  of  the  "  Vista  Publica,"  the  first  pro- 
ceeding is  to  read  the  report,  or  "  dossier,"  of  the  Examining 
Commandant  {juge  d' instruction)  ;  then  comes 

The  examination  by  the  Fiscal,  Assessor,  Defenders, 
President  and  members  of  the  Council,  of  witnesses  and 
experts,  and  the  recognition  of  objects  and  documents ;  the 
accusation  and  the  defence  are  read  .  .  .  and  lastly  the 
accused  speaks,  to  set  forth  whatever  he  may  consider 
opportune. 

So  runs  the  order  of  procedure,  as  officially  stated  ;  and 
in  practice  there  was  only  one  detail  omitted — the  exami- 
nation of  witnesses.  With  this  trifling  exception,  all  went 
according  to  rule.  The  "  dossier "  of  evidence  was  read  ; 
the  Fiscal  (Prosecutor)  read  his  commentary  on  the  evi- 
dence, and  demanded  the  conviction  of  the  accused ;  the 

"ample  opportunity  of  cross-examining,  and  it  was  precisely  in  cross-examina- 
tion that  he  broke  down  and  injured  his  case."  Even  if  we  admit  (which  is 
difficult)  that  the  English  term  "  cross-examination  "  can  fairly  be  applied  to 
the  proceedings  at  these  confrontations,  the  opportunity  of  cross-examining 
four  witnesses  out  of  fifty  is  something  less  than  "ample."  I  willingly  grant, 
however,  that  very  few  of  these  witnesses  had  anything  to  say  that  was  worth 
cross-examining  upon. 


FIRST  EXAMINATION.  183 

Defender  read  his  reply,  which  he  had  been  allowed  only 
twenty-four  hours  (the  time  prescribed  by  law)  to  pre- 
pare ^ ;  and  finally  the  accused  said  a  few  words.  Then 
(strictly  according  to  rule)  the  Court  met  in  secret  session, 
and  the  Assessor  read  his  report,  which  was  in  fact 
another  speech  for  the  prosecution,  uncontrolled  by  the 
presence  of  the  accused  or  his  Defender.  Then  the  Court 
(still  in  secret)  passed  its  sentence,  which  was  forwarded 
for  approval  to  the  Captain-General  of  Catalonia,  ac- 
companied by  the  report  of  an  officer  named  the  Auditor- 
General — a  third  indictment  in  which  all  sorts  of  fresh 
matter  is  introduced.  It  is  these  three  indictments  (trans- 
lated in  the  Appendix)  that  the  Government  publishes 
under  the  title  of  Ordinary  Process  .  .  .  against  Francisco 
Ferrer.     The  speech  for  the  defence  is  tactfully  omitted. 

Having  noted  the  structure  of  the  machine  in  which 
Ferrer  was  caught,  let  us  now  try  to  follow  its  workings. 
Up  to  the  opening  of  the  actual  trial  ("  Vista  Pdblica  "), 
the  letters  of  Ferrer  himself  are  our  chief  authority ;  but 
no  attempt  has  been  made  to  contradict  his  statements. 

In  the  evening  of  the  day  of  his  arrest  (September  i) 
he  underwent  his  first  examination,  at  the  hands  of  Com- 
mandant Vicente  Lliviana.  This  officer,  says  Ferrer  in 
his  letter  to  Heaford,  "  seemed  to  me  a  very  honourable 
and  unprejudiced  man,  desirous  of  knowing  the  truth  and 
nothing  but  the  truth.  I  never  saw  him  again."  Lliviana, 
as  we  have  seen,  was  the  commandant  told  off  to  get  up 
the  case  against  the  "  instigators,  organizers,  and  directors  " 

'  This  must  mean  thai  the  actual  manuscript  of  the  Prosecutor  was  handed 
to  the  Defender  only  twenty-four  hours  before  the  trial.  We  find  from  Ferrer's 
letter  to  Heaford  of  October  3  that  on  tliat  date  (nearly  a  week  before  the 
trial)  he  and  the  Defender  went  over  together  the  "dossier"  of  the  Examining 
Commandant.  Whether  the  Defender  was  allowed  free  access  to  it  in  the 
interval  does  not  appear. 


184  FRANCISCO  FERRER 

of  the  riot.  It  was  he  who  had,  by  advertisement,  sum- 
moned Ferrer  to  appear  before  him.  Up  to  this  point  the 
prosecution  of  Ferrer  had  been  conjoined  with  four  other 
prosecutions  —  against  Emiliano  Iglesias,  Luis  Zurdo, 
Trinidad  Alted,  and  Juana  Ardiaca — under  the  care  of 
Lliviana.  But  now  Ferrer's  case  was  disjoined  from  the 
group,  and  handed  over  to  another  examining  com- 
mandant, Valerio  Raso  by  name.  What  was  the  reason 
of  this  transference  ?  A  comparison  of  dates  may  help  us 
to  divine  it.  The  four  cases  left  under  Lliviana's  charge 
were  not  brought  to  trial  until  March,  1910,  when  passion 
had  fairly  worked  itself  out.  Three  of  the  accused  were 
then  acquitted,  and  the  fourth  sentenced  to  imprisonment 
for  life.  Ferrer,  on  the  other  hand,  was  brought  to  trial 
within  39  days  of  his  arrest,  and  executed  four  days  later. 
Yet,  with  all  this  expedition,  he  was  scarcely  out  of  the 
way  before  the  date  fixed  for  the  re-assembling  of  the 
Cortes.  He  was  shot  on  October  13 ;  the  Chambers 
met  on  October  15.  If  there  be  no  significance  in  this 
juxtaposition  of  dates,  Sr.  Maura's  Government  was  the 
victim  of  a  singularly  unfortunate  coincidence. 

Ferrer's  first  meeting  with  Valerio  Raso  took  place  on 
Monday,  September  6,  when  the  commandant  had  him 
microscopically  scrutinized  from  head  to  foot  by  two 
doctors,  to  see  whether  they  could  find  any  scar,  scratch, 
or  burn  on  his  person.  "  If  I  had  had  the  slightest  accident 
in  my  own  home,"  he  says,  writing  to  Charles  Malato, 
"  nothing  would  have  availed  ;  they  would  have  shot  me 
without  delay."  I  was  at  first  disposed  to  think  that 
Ferrer  was  mistaken  as  to  the  hopes  and  intentions  of  the 
prosecution  at  this  juncture ;  but  on  putting  two  and  two 
together,  and  looking  closely  into  dates,  I  think  the 
probability  is  that  he  was  right,  and  that  if  any  wound  or 


A  NARKOW   ESCAPE  185 

burn  had  been  found  upon  him,  he  would  have  been  sub- 
mitted, not  to  the  "  Juicio  Ordinario,"  but  to  the  "  Juicio 
Suman'simo,"  and  despatched  without  further  ceremony. 
It  is  quite  certain  that  the  Government  at  first  expected 
to  be  quit  of  him  very  promptly.  The  Epoca  of  Sunday, 
September  5,  and  other  Madrid  papers,  announced  that 
"about  the  middle  of  the  week"  the  Council  of  War 
would  assemble  to  try  Ferrer.  At  the  same  time  tele- 
grams to  foreign  papers  (all  under  censorship,  which  let 
pass  only  official  news)  stated  that  the  prosecution  held 
"  conclusive  proofs "  against  Ferrer,  which  would  shortly 
be  submitted  to  a  court  of  summary  jurisdiction.  Turn- 
ing, now,  to  Ferrer's  second  letter  from  prison  to  William 
Heaford  (dated  October  5),  we  find  the  following  para- 
graph— 

I  forgot  to  tell  you  that  in  the  "dossier"  there  is  a 
grave  denunciation.  It  proceeds  from  a  personage  who 
saw  me  fall,  wounded,  at  the  head  of  a  group  of  insurgents 
busy  burning  a  convent.  They  brought  him  to  the  prison, 
and  he  declared  that  he  recognized  me  among  a  row  of 
prisoners.^  But  he  had  given  the  name  and  address  of 
another  person  who  also  purported  to  have  seen  me,  and 
this  reference  the  police  found  to  be  false.  Besides,  there 
is  a  declaration  by  two  doctors,  affirming  that  I  have  no 
trace  upon  me  of  any  wound  either  old  or  new. 

The  evidence  of  this  "personage"  has  entirely  dis- 
appeared from  the  records.  It  has  softly  and  suddenly 
vanished  away.  We  do  not  even  know  his  name.  Is  it 
unfair  to  conclude  that  when,  on  the  5th,  the  Government 
foretold  the  "  most  summary  "  end  of  the  case  (or  at  all 

'  This  incident,  by  the  way,  shows  the  vahie  of  identification  in  a  "  circle 
of  prisoners,"  of  which  we  shall  hear  more  in  the  sequel. 


186  FRANCISCO   FERRER 

events  permitted  it  to  be  foretold  in  papers  and  telegrams 
which  were  all  under  censorship),  they  were  building  upon 
the  "conclusive  proof"  afforded  by  this  man's  testimony, 
which,  had  it  been  confirmed  by  the  presence  of  a  scar  on 
the  prisoner's  body,  would  have  enabled  them  to  treat  him 
as  a  rebel  taken  red-handed,  and  to  dispense  with  all 
further  evidence  ?  Unfortunately,  when  Ferrer's  body  was 
scrutinized  on  the  6th,  no  cicatrice  appeared  upon  it ;  and 
the  alleged  second  witness  was  not  forthcoming.  Perhaps, 
if  only  the  scar  had  been  found,  Providence  would  have 
produced  the  witness.  As  matters  stood,  the  papers  in  a 
day  or  two  announced  that  Ferrer's  trial  would  not  take 
place  so  soon  as  was  expected,  and  that  it  would  be 
"  ordinary,"  not  "  most  summary." 

On  the  9th,  three  days  after  the  medical  examination, 
Valerio  Raso  administered  his  first  interrogatory ;  and 
on  the  19th  his  second  and  last.  The  date  of  the  "con- 
frontations" we  do  not  know.  On  October  i,  Raso 
reappeared,  to  announce  to  Ferrer  that  his  "  dossier "  was 
completed,  that  his  "  incommunication  "  was  relaxed,  and 
that  he  would  be  tried  "one  of  these  days."  Ferrer 
protested  that  he  had  still  many  declarations  to  make ; 
the  commandant  replied  that  nothing  more  could  be 
admitted,  "  military  law  not  being  like  civil  law."  He 
also  presented  a  list  of  officers  from  among  whom  Ferrer 
must  choose  his  Defender.  Knowing  none  of  them,  he 
selected  Captain  Francisco  Galceran  Ferrer,^  on  account 
of  the  chance  resemblance  of  names.  Captain  Galceran 
has  confessed  that  he  accepted  the  charge  very  unwillingly, 
being  strongly  prepossessed   against   Ferrer  on   account 

*  Ferrer  noticed,  not  only  that  two  of  Galceran's  names  were  the  same 
as  his  own,  but  that  all  the  initials  were  the  same  :  in  the  one  case,  F.  F.  G., 
ia  the  other  case,  F.  G.  F. 


DISCLOSURE   OF  DOCUMENTS    187 

of  his  anti-militarism  ;  but  an  hour's  talk  with  the  prisoner 
made  him  his  undaunted  champion. 

Meanwhile  Soledad  Villafranca  was  eating  her  heart 
out  at  Teruel,  in  total  ignorance  of  what  was  passing  at 
Barcelona.  She  and  her  comrades  of  exile  naturally 
expected,  day  after  day,  to  be  called  upon  for  their 
evidence.  This  expectation  was  encouraged  (unofficially, 
of  course,  and  very  likely  in  good  faith)  by  their  jailors. 
A  member  of  the  Palace  police  from  Madrid,  who  had 
been  specially  told  off  to  keep  watch  over  Mme.  Villa- 
franca, bade  her  wait  patiently  and  the  summons  would 
come  in  due  time.  She  and  her  comrades  were  not 
reassured  on  finding  that  some  anarchist  documents,  said 
to  have  been  discovered  among  Ferrer's  papers,  were 
going  the  round  of  the  press,  with  the  natural  result  of 
still  further  prejudicing  the  public  mind  against  him. 
This  is,  indeed,  one  of  the  darkest  features  of  the  whole 
affair.  The  "  Sumario,"  or  collection  of  evidence,  is  by 
rule  and  custom  absolutely  private ;  yet  here  were  two 
documents,  on  the  face  of  them  most  compromising, 
allowed  to  leak  out,*  and  passing  from  newspaper  to 
newspaper.  In  one  of  the  documents,  moreover,  as  com- 
municated to  the  press,  a  word  of  some  importance  was 
misquoted.  When  the  document  was  cited  by  the  Assessor 
{Process,  p.  288),  it  appeared  that  one  of  the  paragraphs 
ended  with  the  phrase  "Viva  la  anarqui'a ! "  But  in  the 
version  sent  to  the  newspapers  the  word  "dinamita"  was 
substituted  for  "anarqui'a."  These  slips  of  the  pen  are 
a  little  unfortunate  when  a  human  life  is  at  stake. 

Another    straw   which    showed    how    the    wind    was 


*  "Allowed  to  leak  out  "  is  probably  an  inexact  phrase,  "Deliberately 
circulated "  would  state  the  case  more  accurately.  A  similar  perfidy  was 
employed  or  attempted  before  the  Madrid  trial  of  1907.     See  p.  78. 


188  FRANCISCO  FERRER 

blowing  was  the  announcement  on  September  25  of 
the  rewards  accorded  by  the  Government  to  the  men 
who  had  arrested  Ferrer.  I  translate  from  El  Imparcial 
of  that  date — 


The  Arrest  of  Ferrer— Rewards. 

The  Government  has  allotted  the  following  rewards : — 

The  Alcalde  of  Alella  has  been  made  a  Commander 
of  the  Order  of  Isabella  the  Catholic. 

To  the  two  individuals  of  the  somaten  who  declared  in 
advance  that  they  did  not  want  any  pecuniary  recom- 
pense, but  would  accept  the  complete  uniform  and  equip- 
ment of  their  corps,  including  a  Mauser  with  a  plate 
commemorating  the  date  of  the  arrest  of  the  Director  of 
the  Escuela  Moderna  of  Barcelona,  all  this  will  be  pre- 
sented by  the  Minister  of  War,  and  moreover  the  title 
of  Knight  of  Isabella  the  Catholic  is  awarded  them. 

And  to  the  sereno  who  actually  efifected  the  arrest,  and 
to  other  agents  who  helped  him,  are  conceded  medals  of 
Isabella  the  Catholic,  and  3000  pesetas  [;^i2o]  in  cash. 

The  Ministry  of  the  Interior  will  pay  the  whole 
expenses  of  insignia,  and  the  fees  due  on  receipt  of  these 
decorations. 

Am  I  wrong  in  considering  this  a  quite  amazing 
incident?  Seven  or  eight  villagers  have  arrested  one 
solitary  man,  who  made  no  resistance,  being  armed  with 
nothing  more  formidable  than  a  hand  camera ;  and  while 
that  man  is  awaiting  his  trial,  the  Government  goes  out 
of  its  way  to  distribute  lavish  rewards  among  the  heroic 
captors,  and  to  bestow  on  them  the  benediction  of  Isabella 
the  Catholic !  Could  any  better  means  be  imagined  of 
announcing  a  confident  foreknowledge  of  the  prisoner's 
doom? 

Weary  at  last  of  waiting  for  a  call  that  never  came, 


EVIDENCE   REJECTED  189 

the  exiles  of  Teruel,  on  September  28,  addressed  a  letter 
to  the  Examining  Commandant,  expressing  their  surprise 
at   not   having  been   summoned,  and  demanding   to   be 
heard.      The   letter  was  signed   by  Soledad  Villafranca, 
Jos^    Ferrer,   Alfredo    Meseguer,    Cristobal   Litran,    and 
Mariano  Batllori.     On  September  30,  Don  Valerio  Raso 
replied    that   on   the    previous    day   the   case   had    been 
"elevated  to  plenario,"  and   that   consequently  no  more 
evidence   could   be   taken.     "  I    am  much    surprised,"  he 
added,  "  that,  if  you  had  anything  to  say,  you  should  not 
have  done  so  before,  in  the  28   days  which  had  elapsed 
before  you  wrote."     As  no  one  seems  to  know  in  what 
consists  the  mysterious  operation  of  "  elevating  "  a  case 
"  to  plenario,"  it  is  impossible  to  disprove  Don  Valerio's 
assertion.     It  may  be  said,  however,  that  the  "  elevation  " 
was  not  made  known  to  Ferrer  himself  until  October  i, 
and  that,  even  after  that,  Mme.  Villafranca's  mother  was 
called  upon  to  give  evidence.     The  rules  of  the  "  plenario," 
it  is  true,  do  not  permit  the  appearance  of  fresh  witnesses 
except  in  the  case  of  "  common  offences  "  as  distinguished 
from  "  military  offences  "  ;    but  they  do  not  explain  why, 
in  dealing  with  military  offences,  the  Court  should  deny 
itself  a  means  of  getting  at  the  truth,  which  it  is  free  to 
employ  in  other    cases.     At   any   rate,   as   the   evidence 
of  Ferrer's   friends  was  rejected    on    this    paltry   plea   of 
time,  it  was  a  little  unkind  of  the  Prosecutor  to  make 
it  a  point  against  him  that  there  were  no  witnesses   to 
speak  in  his  favour  {Process  p.  276). 


XVI 

THE  TRIAL  IN  OUTLINE 

On  the  morning  of  Saturday,  October  9,  the  Council 
of  War  assembled  at  the  Model  Prison  of  Barcelona  for 
the  trial  of  Francisco  Ferrer.  The  streets  around  the 
prison,  and  the  courtyard  of  the  prison  itself,  swarmed 
with  police  and  Guardias  Civiles.  The  public  was 
admitted  only  by  ticket,  and  care  was  no  doubt  taken 
that  tickets  should  be  distributed  only  to  "  right-thinking  " 
persons.  There  were  many  soldiers  among  the  audience. 
It  would  appear  from  photographs  of  the  scene  that  no 
ladies  were  present. 

The  Examining  Commandant,  Don  Valerio  Raso 
Negrini,  sat  to  the  right  of  the  long  table  provided  for 
the  Colonel  and  six  Captains  who  formed  the  Court.  He 
had  before  him  a  huge  portfolio  containing  the  records 
of  the  "sumario,"  running  to  600  sheets,  and  a  smaller 
portfolio  containing  an  abstract  of  these  documents. 
Beside  him,  at  another  small  table,  sat  the  Prosecutor, 
Don  Jesus  Man'n  Rafales.  On  the  left  of  the  judges  sat 
the  Defender,  Captain  Francisco  Galcerdn  Ferrer ;  and 
the  prisoner,  on  being  led  in  by  a  file  of  soldiers,  was 
assigned  a  seat  beside  his  Defender.  He  bowed  to  the 
Court  and  to  the  public,  and  said  a  few  words  of  excuse 
for  appearing  in  the  ridiculous  ready-made  suit  before 
described;    but   when    he   tried   to   protest    against    the 


^ 


o 

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J        <U 

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THE   TRIAL  191 

conduct  of  the  police  in  depriving  him  of  his  clothes,  the 
President  cut  him  short.  It  is  recorded  that  his  chin- 
beard  and  moustache,  which  he  had  shaved  before  his 
arrest,  had  now  grown  again ;  but,  as  before  stated,  I 
am  by  no  means  convinced  that  he  ever  had  shaved 
completely.     His  cheeks  he  always  shaved. 

At  this  point  I  cannot  do  better  than  reproduce  the 
outline  of  the  trial  telegraphed  to  the  Times  by  its 
Barcelona  correspondent.  This  is  the  only  account  in 
which  it  clearly  appears  that  no  witnesses  were  heard. 
In  the  accounts  sent  out  ,by  the  various  news-agencies, 
this  point  was — whether  by  accident  or  design — left 
obscure.  In  the  first  paragraph  of  the  telegram  I 
correct  three  misprints,  which  were  pointed  out  to  me 
by  the  correspondent  himself. 

Barcelona,  October  9. 

The  trial  of  Sr.  Ferrer  began  at  8  o'clock  in  the  council 
chamber  of  the  new  prison,  and  lasted  five  hours.  The 
Court  consisted  of  a  lieutenant-colonel  as  president,  and 
six  captains.  Sr.  Ferrer  sat  unfettered  ^  by  the  side  of 
Sr.  Francisco  Galceran,  his  counsel.  About  20  reporters 
and  250  of  the  general  public  were  present. 

The  examining  magistrate  read  the  prods  z'erdal  giving 
the  details  of  Sr.  Ferrer's  arrest  and  examination,  the  list 
of  incriminating  articles  found  in  his  possession,  and  the 
declarations  of  witnesses  for  both  sides.  This  occupied 
two  and  a  half  hours,  and  was  followed  by  the  public  with 
great  interest. 

The  prosecutor  summarized  the  evidence  in  the  proch 
verbal^  stating  that  15  witnesses  proved  that  Sr.  Ferrer 
initiated  the  disturbances  in  Premid,  that  others  proved 
that  he  tried  the  same  thing  in  Masnou,  and  that  he  was 

'  This  appeared  in  the  Timet  as  "  in  fetters,"  a  misprint  which  has  unfur- 
tunately  been  widely  reproduced. 


192  FRANCISCO  FERRER 

seen  at  the  head  of  armed  groups  in  Barcelona,  and  con- 
cluded a  well-reasoned  and  temperate  speech  by  demand- 
ing in  the  name  of  the  King,  while  all  in  Court  stood,  that 
Sr.  Ferrer  should  be  sentenced  to  death  for  the  crime  of 
rebellion,  or,  if  the  extreme  penalty  were  not  inflicted,  to 
penal  servitude  for  life  with  sequestration  of  his  property 
to  indemnify  the  losses  occasioned  by  burning,  pillage,  and 
other  destruction  during  the  rebellion. 

Sr.  Ferrer's  counsel,  a  captain  of  Engineers,  made  an 
eloquent  speech,  expressing  the  view  that  Sr.  Ferrer  was 
the  victim  of  political  animosity,  and  endeavouring  to 
prove  the  weakness  of  evidence  against  him.  He  regretted 
that  old  charges  had  been  raked  up  which  bore  no  refer- 
ence to  the  present  case.  The  speech  was  distinguished 
by  clearness  and  great  independence. 

Sr.  Ferrer  remained  perfectly  calm  during  the  entire 
proceedings,  showing  by  frequent  movements  of  the  head 
that  he  followed  everything.  Asked  by  the  President  if 
he  had  anything  to  say,  he  stated  that  if  he  were  judged 
only  by  recent  events  he  would  be  acquitted.  It  was 
unfair  to  be  influenced  by  occurrences  of  last  century.  He 
concluded  by  saying  that  his  only  occupation  of  recent 
years  had  been  in  matters  of  education,  instruction,  and 
culture. 

The  President  said  that  the  council  would  consider 
their  verdict  in  private.     The  Court  was  then  cleared. 

The  sentence  will  not  be  published  until  approved  of 
by  the  Captain-General  and  the  Supreme  Court  of  Madrid, 
possibly  in  the  course  of  the  week.^  The  entire  proceed- 
ings were  characterized  by  order  and  solemnity  on  the 
part  of  the  Court  and  intense  but  subdued  interest  on  the 
part  of  the  public. 

We  do  not  possess  anything  like  a  full  report  of  the 

*  As  a  matter  of  fact  Ferrer  was  shot  on  the  morning  of  thf  fourth  day 
after  his  trial.  We  may  judge  from  this  remark  of  the  correspondent — aa 
almost  life-long  resident  in  Spain — how  unexpected  and  unusual  was  the  haste 
displayed. 


"DRUNK   WITH   BLOOD"  193 

contents  of  the  Examining  Commandant's  portfolio,  or 
even  of  the  abstract  which  he  read  to  the  Court.  But 
there  can  be  no  doubt  that  everything  that  could  possibly 
tell  against  the  prisoner  was  recapitulated  and  underlined 
in  the  "  Fiscal  accusation,"  which  has  been  published  in 
full  {Process,  pp.  257-285). 

The  Prosecutor,  Don  Jesus  Marin  Rafales,  opened  with  a 
rhetorical  description  of  the  riots  and  outrages,  quite  in  the 
style  of  that  quoted  from  the  Correspondencia  (p.  136),  and 
almost  as  exaggerated.  Before  saying  a  word  to  connect 
Ferrer  with  these  events,  he  appealed  to  the  professional 
and  personal  resentment  of  the  judges,  "  all  or  almost  all  " 
of  whom,  he  said,  had  taken  part  in  the  repression,  and 
had  been  exposed  to  its  dangers.  He  spoke  of  "the  fire 
to  which  you  were  subjected  from  barricades  and  house- 
tops." He  denounced  the  rioters  as  "  drunk  with  blood," 
forgetting  that  nine-tenths  of  the  blood  shed  was  that  of 
the  populace,  shot  down  by  the  police  and  the  soldiers.  In 
short,  he  neglected  no  means  of  awakening  the  passions 
of  the  soldier-judges,  if  perchance  they  had  fallen  asleep. 
At  the  same  time,  he  explicitly  declared — 

In  this  case  we  are  not  investigating  the  burning  of  a 
particular  convent,  nor  the  explosion  at  this  or  that  given 
point,  nor  the  cutting  of  this  or  that  telegraph  wire,  nor 
the  construction  of  this  or  that  barricade,  nor  this  or  that 
overt  act  of  war.  No !  we  are  following  up  the  revolu- 
tionary movement  in  its  inmost  entrails  ;  we  are  investi- 
gating the  causes  that  gave  it  life,  and  seeking  the  agency 
which  prepared,  impelled,  and  sustained  it. 

In  less  ornate  terms,  the  Prosecutor  confessed  that 
they  could  not!  bring  home  to  the  prisoner  a  single  act  of 
violence. 

He  then  devoted  a  few  minutes  to  arguing   that  the 

O 


194  FRANCISCO  FERRER 

events  of  July  constituted  a  "military  rebellion"  as  by 
law  defined  ;  and,  that  being  satisfactorily  established,  he 
went  on  to  an  analysis  of  the  evidence.  It  is  this  analysis 
which  we  must  now  analyze. 

The  evidence  falls  under  four  distinct  heads — 

1.  Unsupported  opinion  and  hearsay. 

2.  Statements   which   may  or   may  not  be   true,  but 
which  prove  nothing. 

3.  More  or  less  relevant  accusations,  the  truth  or  false- 
hood of  which  is  worth  examining. 

4.  Documentary  evidence — two   revolutionary  papers 
purporting  to  have  been  found  at  Mas  Germinal. 


XVII 

THE  EVIDENCE— OPINION   AND   HEARSAY 

Before  showing  how  much  of  the  evidence  consisted  of 
irresponsible  opinion  and  hearsay,  I  may  as  well  clear  up 
a  verbal  misunderstanding. 

Captain  Galceran,  in  his  speech  for  the  defence,  com- 
plained that  anonymous  testimony  had  been  admitted — a 
suggestion  which  was  indignantly  repudiated  by  the 
Assessor  (p.  291).  When  two  sane  men  make  such  dia- 
metrically opposite  statements  about  a  body  of  evidence 
which  has  just  been  read  to  the  Court  they  are  addressing, 
it  is  clear  that  they  must  be  using  words  in  different 
senses.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  Assessor  was  right  in 
the  letter,*  the  Defender  in  the  spirit.  It  is  true  that  the 
name  of  each  witness  was  given,  but  it  is  also  true  that  a 
great  number  of  the  witnesses  reported  nothing  of  their 
own  actual  knowledge,  but  only  things  which  they  had 
heard  from  unnamed  other  people.  If  that  be  not,  to  all 
intents  and  purposes,  anonymous  evidence,  there  is  no 
meaning  in  the  words.  Mr.  Hilairc  Bclloc,"  going  back  on 
the  Assessor,  says,  "  The  Court  permitted  a  portion  of  the 
testimony  to  be  anonymous."  This  is  practically,  though 
not  literally,  true.     The  Court  did  not  consciously  and  of 

'  It  would  appear  (Simarro,  vol.  i.  p.  416)  that  some  anonymous  denunci- 
ations weie  actually  included  in  the  records;  but  tlicy  were  not  quoted  by  the 
Prosecutor. 

-  Dublin  RnicMt  January,  1910. 


196  FRANCISCO   FERRER 

set  purpose  "  permit "  anonymity ;  only  it  had  never 
occurred  to  the  gallant  officers  that  any  evidence — for  the 
prosecution — should  or  could  be  excluded. 

In  order  to  show  the  quality  of  the  greater  part  of  the 
evidence,  I  cannot  do  better  than  analyze  a  single  para- 
graph of  the  speech  for  the  prosecution.  As  translated  in 
the  Appendix  (p.  260),  it  is  broken  up  into  several  para- 
graphs ;  but  in  the  original  it  runs  solidly  and  stolidly  on. 

Lieutenant-Colonel  Leoncio  Ponte  of  the  Guardia 
Civil  points  to  Ferrer  as  taking  active  part  in  the  move- 
ment of  Masnou  and  Premid.  It  is  not  pretended  that 
Lieutenant-Colonel  Ponte  saw  him  doing  so,  or  speaks 
otherwise  than  from  hearsay.  Though  the  Prosecutor 
does  not  say  so,  we  know  from  other  sources  that  the 
Lieutenant-Colonel  based  his  evidence  "  on  reserved  con- 
fidences." The  delicacy  with  which  the  Court  respected 
these  reserves  shows  that  Cervantes  did  not  smile  all 
Spain's  chivalry  away.  In  less  considerate  countries  the 
Lieutenant-Colonel  would  have  been  told  to  produce  his 
informants  or  hold  his  tongue.  He  was  the  same  officer, 
by  the  way,  who,  in  the  Madrid  trial  of  1907,  denounced 
Ferrer  as  "  the  director  of  the  vi^hoie,"  adding,  '*  Ask  any 
business  man  in  Barcelona,  and  you  will  see  that  he  will 
answer :  Ferrer."  The  sum  total  of  his  two  deliverances 
is  that  he  did  not  like  Ferrer,  and  imagined  him  capable 
of  anything. 

Jimenez  Moya,  "a  witness  above  suspicion,  since,  on 
account  of  the  exaltation  of  his  ideas,  he  is  at  present 
banished  to  Majorca,  makes  the  charge  more  concrete, 
saying  that,  in  his  opinion,  the  rebellion  started  from  the 
Solidaridad  Obrera  .  .  .  and  pointing  to  Ferrer  and  his 
companions  of  the  Antimilitarist  League  as  its  directors." 
The  Prosecutor  does  not  add,  what  we  learn  from  Captain 


UNVERIFIED   RUMOURS  197 

Galceran's  speech,  that  the  declaration  of  this  witness 
ends  with  the  avowal  that  "he  knows  nothing  positive, 
since  he  was  absent  from  Barcelona  from  the  15th  of  July 
onwards."  The  riots,  it  will  be  remembered,  began  on 
the  26th,  and  the  first  marked  symptom  of  unrest  did  not 
occur  until  the  i8th. 

Verdaguer  Callis  "  affirms  that,  according  to  intelligence 
•which  he  has  no  means  of  verifying,  but  which  he  believes  to 
be  exact"  the  events  were  " impelled  and  guided  by  Ferrer 
Guardia." 

Emiliano  Iglesias  believes  that  the  Solidaridad  Obrera 
spent  more  money  than  it  possessed.  [Ferrer  had,  about 
a  year  previously,  lent  the  Solidaridad  Obrera  some  ;^35, 
which  it  required  to  meet  the  expenses  of  moving  into 
new  premises.  He  is  also  said,  on  one  occasion,  to  have 
paid  the  expenses  of  a  delegate  of  the  Solidaridad  to  a 
congress  at  Marseilles.  Beyond  this  no  one  has  attempted 
to  prove  any  financial  relation  between  Ferrer  and  the 
society.]  ^ 

'  We  now  possess  the  full  report  of  the  testimony  of  Sr.  Iglesias ;  and  it 
affords  a  good  instance  of  the  way  in  which  evidence  was  treated  by  the  pro- 
secution. Asked  whether  it  was  true  that  a  commission  of  the  Solidaridad 
Obrera,  speaking  in  the  name  of  Ferrer,  interviewed  the  Lerrouxists  on  the 
night  of  the  26th,  he  replied  that  he  kneio  absolutely  nothing  about  it.  Asked 
whether  it  was  true  that  Ferrer  had  requested  him  to  sign  a  manifesto  directed 
to  the  Government,  he  replied  that  it  was  not  tme^  and  that  he  had  not  seen 
Ferrer  for  nine  7nonths.  Asked  whether  he  knew  of  any  participation  by 
Ferrer  in  the  preparation  or  execution  of  the  revolt,  he  replied  that  he  was 
absolutely  ignorant  of  any  such  participation.  Asked  whether  he  knew  of  any 
connection  between  the  revolt  and  operations  on  the  Bourse,  he  replied  that 
he  knew  of  none.  Asked  whether  he  knew  of  a  clandestine  meeting  at  the 
Solidaridad  Obrera,  he  replied  that  he  had  no  knowledge  of  it.  Asked  what  he 
knew  as  to  financial  relations  between  Ferrer  and  the  Solidaridad,  he  replied 
that  he  was  absolutely  ignorant  on  the  point,  adding  that  the  Solidaridad  had  for 
more  than  a  year  been  ferociously  attacking  him  (Iglesias),  attd  he  believed  that 
in  that  campaign  of  hostility  it  had  been  spending  more  tnoncy  than  it  possessed. 
This  was  the  whole  of  his  evidence.  No  wonder  Iglesias  was  amazed  to  find 
himself  figuring  as  a  witness  for  the  prosecution  on  the  strength  of  one  phrase, 
torn  from  its  context  and  perverted  in  its  application. 


198  FRANCISCO   FERRER 

Baldomcro  Bonet,  arrested  on  a  charge  of  convent- 
burning,  believes  that  the  Solidaridad  Obrera  was  at  the 
bottom  of  the  events,  and,  as  it  does  not  abound  in  funds, 
participates  in  the  general  idea  that  it  was  subventioned  by 
Ferrer.  On  a  second  examination,  "  lie  confirms  his  belief, 
since  he  cannot  understand  that  any  other  element  could 
have  caused  the  events." 

"The  same  current  against  the  Solidaridad  Obrera 
and  Ferrer  is  maintained  in  the  declaration  of  Modesto 
Lara." 

Garcia  Magallon  relates  a  conversation  with  a  journalist 
named  Pierre,^  who  told  him  that  he  had  lieard  it  said  that 
the  events  were  promoted  by  the  Solidaridad  Obrera 
under  the  direction  of  Ferrer. 

Puig  Ventura  "  believes  that  Ferrer  was  at  the  bottom 
of  it  all." 

Casas  Llibre  formed  the  opinion  that  Ferrer  was  the 
"  directing  element." 

Alvarez  Espinosa  "  abounds  in  the  same  opinion,"  and 
believes  that  Ferrer  was  "  the  true  instigator  and  inspirer 
of  the  events." 

The  last  three  witnesses  we  shall  encounter  again,  and 
shall  have  to  consider  the  value  of  their  evidence  on 
matters  which  actually  came  within  their  knowledge. 
Here  they  are  only,  like  all  the  rest,  expressing  opinions 
and  beliefs  for  which  they  do  not  even  allege  the  smallest 
solid  foundation.  Thus  we  have  ten  witnesses,  one  of 
whom,  Iglesias,  said  nothing  about  Ferrer,  two  "  pointed 
to "  him,  three  "  believed  "  that  he  was  at  the  bottom  of 
the  revolt,  two  "formed  an  opinion"  to  the  same  effect, 

•  I  have  seen  a'letter  from  this  Pierre,  protesting  that  he  never  said  any- 
thing of  the  sort ;  but  this  protest  scarcely  increases  the  manifest  worthless- 
ness  of  the  evidence. 


THE  VAGUE  VILLAGERS         199 

one  related  a  report  "which  he  had  no  means  of  verifying," 
and  one  repeated  what  some  one  else  told  him  that  he  had 
heard  some  one  else  say.  Meanwhile,  there  were  in  the 
jails  of  Barcelona  more  than  a  thousand  prisoners  accused 
of  participation  in  the  riots,  and  in  the  rest  of  Catalonia 
at  least  a  thousand  more,  not  one  of  whom  could  be  found 
to  have  received  orders  from  Ferrer,  or  arms,  or  money,  or 
to  have  had  any  direct  or  indirect  knowledge  of  him  as 
organizer  or  chief  of  the  revolt. 

A  group  of  five  witnesses  cited  by  the  Prosecutor  in 
the  same  paragraph  deserves  somewhat  different  treatment. 
They  are  villagers  of  Premia — Don  Juan  This  and  Don 
Jaime  That,  Three  of  them  declare  generally  that  "  after  " 
the  visit  of  Ferrer  to  Premia  on  Wednesday  the  2Sth  events 
in  that  locality  "  assumed  a  grave  character  " ;  a  fourth 
asserts  that  the  change  took  place  ''immediately  on  his 
arrival,"  while  the  fifth  fixes  it  at  "an  hour  after  his 
departure."  Now  we  shall  see  anon  that  Ferrer  spent 
a  very  short  time  in  Premid,  that  a  most  important  witness, 
Puig  Ventura  (called  Llarch),  was  in  his  company  all  the 
time,  and  that,  except  for  what  he  is  alleged  to  have  said 
to  Puig,  Casas,  etc.,  he  clearly  held  no  communication 
with  a  soul  in  the  village.  Thus,  while  the  evidence  for 
any  considerable  change  in  the  course  of  events  is  of  the 
vaguest,  one  of  the  prosecution's  own  witnesses  proves  that 
there  was  no  connection  between  Ferrer's  visit  and  what- 
ever change  there  may  have  been. 

This  point  is  worth  dwelling  on  for  a  moment,  not 
only  for  its  own  sake,  but  as  an  instance  of  the  extra- 
ordinary pcrfunctorincss  of  the  whole  proceedings.  It  is 
the  literal  and  irrefragable  truth  that  the  prosecution 
absolutely  contradicted  itself  in  its  attempt  to  establish 
any  connection  between  F"crrer's  visit  to  Premia  and  the 


200  FRANCISCO   FERRER 

turn  taken  by  events  after  his  departure.  As  we  shall 
presently  see,  every  one  to  whom  he  spoke  utterly 
denies  having  been  in  any  way  influenced  by  him  ;  and 
their  evidence  is  accepted  by  the  prosecution  without  the 
slightest  reserve.  How  is  it  possible,  then,  that  anything 
that  happened  afterwards  should  have  been  due  to  this 
visit  ?  It  is  manifestly  impossible,  if  Llarch,  the  Al- 
calde, etc.,  are  to  be  believed  ;  yet  there  is  no  sign  that 
anybody  put  this  simple  point  to  the  Court.  The  truth 
is  that  Captain  Galceran,  even  if  he  had  had  time  to  study 
his  brief,  had  no  time  to  state  his  case.  It  appears  to  have 
been  an  understood  thing  that  the  "  Vista  Publica  "  must 
be  got  through  between  breakfast  and  lunch.  At  any 
rate,  whether  by  arrangement  or  not,  the  sitting  lasted 
just  five  hours,  from  eight  to  one.  Of  that  time  two  hours 
and  a  half,  says  the  Times  correspondent,  were  occupied 
by  the  reading  of  the  "  Sumario."  Then  the  Prosecutor 
delivered  his  indictment,  which,  even  read  at  lightning 
speed,  cannot  possibly  have  taken  less  than  an  hour  and 
a  half ;  so  that  a  single  hour  is  the  very  utmost  that  we 
can  suppose  the  Defender  to  have  occupied.  There  was 
simply  not  time  for  analysis  or  searching  argument; 
which  renders  it  the  less  surprising  that  those  parts  of  the 
Defender's  address  which  have  been  reported  are  more 
rhetorical  than  logical,  more  contentious  than  convincing. 

But  we  are  by  no  means  at  the  end  of  hearsay  evidence 
and  the  expression  of  mere  opinion.  It  is  stated  that  a 
man  named  Sola  was  frequently  seen  during  the  days  of 
the  disturbance  at  the  Fraternidad  Republicana  of  Premia, 
and  one  Juan  Alsina  is  "morally  certain  "  that  he  received 
instructions  directly  from  Ferrer.  There  is  no  evidence 
whatever  as  to  his  having  done  or  attempted  anything 
illegal ;    but,   on   the   ground    of    one    witness's^  "  moral 


INVISIBLE   "AGENTS  '  201 

certainty"  that  he  was  an  emissary  of  Ferrer,  this  is 
gravely  set  forth  as  an  incriminating  circumstance.  Again, 
one  Puig  Pons  speaks  of  the  appearance  at  Premia  of  a 
party  of  thirty  men  whom  he  "believes"  to  have  been 
recruited  by  Ferrer.  He  does  not  know  this  personally ; 
but  when  the  bystanders  asked  one  another  who  these 
men  were,  the  answer  was,  '*  They  are  the  quarrymen 
whom  Ferrer  is  said  to  have  sent."  Moreover,  a  good 
deal  of  vague  village  gossip  is  reported  as  to  cyclists  and 
persons  driving  a  tartana,  or  one-horse  cart,  who  were 
supposed  to  be  agents  of  Ferrer  ;  but  no  one  is  produced 
who  actually  saw  these  "  agents  "  ;  much  less  any  one  who 
saw  them  do  or  heard  them  say  anything  illegal ;  least  of 
all  any  evidence  to  connect  them  with  Ferrer. 

But  the  finest  example,  perhaps,  of  this  class  of 
evidence  is  afforded  by  a  witness  named  Pedro  Pagds, 
who  "  reports  that  he  read  in  Z^  Almudaina,  a  newspaper 
of  Palma  [Majorca],"  a  story  about  some  workmen  having 
patrolled  the  coast  road,  saying  that  they  did  so  under  the 
orders  of  Sr.  Ferrer.  A  newspaper  paragraph  is  not  usually 
considered  the  best  of  evidence  ;  but  Don  Pedro  Pages 
did  not  even  produce  the  paragraph — he  only  remembered 
to  have  read  it. 

A  point  of  transition  between  pure  hearsay  and 
evidence  of  some  apparent  validity  is  afforded  by  the 
incident  of  the  town  hall  at  Masnou.  Salvador  Millet 
relates,  "from  information  received  {segim  referencias)^* 
that  on  the  27th  or  28th  groups  of  rebels  presented 
themselves  at  the  said  town  hall,  and  from  the  balcony 
"  harangued  the  multitude,"  saying  that  they  did  so  in  the 
name  of  P'errer,  "  who  could  not  be  present,  as  he  was 
detained  in  Barcelona  on  the  business  of  the  revolution." 
This  is  the  usual  vague  hearsay ;  but  in  this  case  there  is 


202  FRANCISCO  FERRER 

actually  one  witness,  Esteban  Puigdemon,  who  declares 
that  from  the  door  of  his  house,  hard  by  the  town  hall,  he 
heard  one  man  make  a  speech  and  say  that  he  came  to 
represent  Ferrer.  Well  may  the  Prosecutor  introduce 
Don  Esteban  in  italics  as  a  testigo  presencial^  or  witness 
who  was  on  the  spot.  Such  witnesses  are  rarities  in  this 
part  of  his  brief. 

Esteban,  indeed,  is  more  than  a  rarity ;  he  is  unique. 
We  shall  come  presently  to  witnesses  who  purport  to 
relate  what  Ferrer  actually  said  to  them  at  Masnou  and 
Premia  ;  but  there  is  nothing  in  their  evidence  that  shows 
him  acting  as  organizer  or  director  of  the  occurrences  in 
that  region,  which,  by  the  way,  were  quite  unimportant. 
The  attempt  to  exhibit  him  in  that  light — "irradiating 
rebellion,"  as  the  Prosecutor  of  the  Supreme  Court  put  it, 
from  his  headquarters  at  Mas  Germinal — rests  absolutely 
and  entirely  on  the  hearsay  evidence  we  have  just  ex- 
amined. Of  the  host  of  agents  with  whom  popular  rumour 
credited  him — cyclists,  quarrymen,  miscellaneous  work- 
men, indefinite  "  rebels,"  etc. — not  one  is  produced.  There 
is  no  direct  testimony  to  his  having  issued  a  single  order 
or  paid  any  one  a  single  peseta.  There  is  only  one  testigo 
presencial,  who  heard  some  unknown  person  "harangue  a 
multitude,"  and  say  that  he  acted  on  behalf  of  Ferrer. 
What  has  become  of  the  "  multitude  "  ?  If  the  incident 
really  occurred,  surely  a  few  more  of  that  crowd  might 
have  been  found  to  testify  to  it.  And,  even  if  it  did 
occur,  can  Ferrer  be  held  responsible  for  what  an  un- 
identified "  rebel "  may  have  said  }  This  whole  part  of 
the  case  merely  proves — what  we  learn  in  other  ways  as 
well — that  the  ignorant  peasants  of  the  district  had  been 
indoctrinated  with  wild  ideas  as  to  the  maleficent  power 
of  their  heretic  neighbour  at  Mas  Germinal. 


"A   MERE   SUSPICION  "  203 

Perhaps  we  may  place  under  the  heading  of  hearsay 
evidence  an  accusation  which  is  not  even  by  hearsay 
brought  home  to  Ferrer,  but  is  confessedly  a  pure  con- 
jecture on  the  part  of  the  Prosecutor.  In  order  to  account 
for  the  fact  that  so  accomplished  and  sinister  a  hypocrite 
as  Ferrer  should  have  ventured  so  far  out  into  the  open  as 
to  allow  of  any  evidence  at  all  being  brought  against  him, 
the  Prosecutor  puts  forward  "a  mere  suspicion,  nothing 
more  than  a  suspicion  " — ima  mera  sospecha,  nada  vids  qiie 
sospecha — that  his  avarice  may  have  got  the  better  of  his 
cowardice,  and  that  he  may  have  organized  and  directed 
the  rebellion  in  order  to  make  money  by  an  operation  on 
the  Bourse !  Is  it  not  an  almost  incredible  proof  of  black 
malice  that  such  an  insinuation  should  have  been  gravely 
put  forward  by  the  Prosecutor  and  gravely  listened  to  by 
the  Court  ?  If  Ferrer,  or  any  one  connected  with  him,  had 
had  any  interest  in  a  fall  in  securities,  it  ought  to  have 
been  perfectly  easy  to  prove  the  fact ;  but  there  was  no 
pretence  of  doing  anything  of  the  kind.  We  have  seen  in 
the  examination  of  Iglesias  that  a  feeler  put  forth  in  this 
direction  proved  unavailing ;  and  doubtless  other  leading 
questions  to  other  witnesses  yielded  no  better  result.  Yet 
the  Prosecutor  "  finds  it  difficult  to  escape  from  the  idea  " 
that  Ferrer  was  not  even  actuated  by  mistaken  enthusiasm, 
but  that  he  let  havoc  loose  in  Barcelona  from  no  higher 
motive  than  a  base  love  of  gain.  If  any  answer  were 
required  to  such  a  monstrous  accusation,  it  would  be  found 
in  an  official  statement  by  the  Royal  College  of  Stock- 
brokers that  no  unusual  transaction  in  public  funds 
occurred  in  Barcelona  during  the  months  of  July  and 
August,  and  that  "  the  oscillations  of  values  followed  the 
regulating  indications  of  the  Bourses  of  Madrid  and 
Paris." 


XVIII 

THE  EVIDENCE— STATEMENTS   WHICH    PROVE    NOTHING 

We  have  now  to  return  to  Barcelona,  and  to  Ferrer's 
doings  on  the  26th — the  day  of  the  strike.  We  have 
already  noted  that,  in  his  own  account  of  that  day,  he 
omitted  a  good  deal,  probably  in  fear  of  compromising  his 
friends.  Let  us  now  see  whether  there  was  anything 
criminal — anything  displaying  him  in  ■  the  character  of 
"  author  and  chief  of  the  revolt " — in  the  incidents  that  he 
omitted. 

There  is  no  attempt  to  show  the  "  author  and  chief"  in 
any  way  concerned  v/ith  the  events  of  the  day  until  three 
o'clock  in  the  afternoon.  At  that  hour — between  his 
luncheon  and  his  appointment  with  the  engraver — he  went 
to  the  Casa  del  Pueblo,  a  workman's  restaurant  and  re- 
creation-place, in  search  of  his  secretary,  Litran.  In  the 
cafe  he  saw  an  old  Republican,  Lorenzo  Ardid,  whose 
evidence  in  thus  reported  by  the  Prosecutor — 

Ferrer  entered  and  saluted  him,  saying  that  he  would 
like  to  speak  to  him  privately.  Ardid  replied,  "  When 
you  please  "  ;  and  Ferrer  then  asked  him,  "  What  do  you 
think  of  the  events  of  the  day  ?  "  The  witness  answered, 
"  It  is  all  over :  it  is  only  a  sort  of  protest,  which  cannot 
go  any  further."  Then  Ferrer  repeated,  "  You  think  it 
cannot  go  any  further  .'' " — upon  which  he  answered  with 
energy,  and  Ferrer  became  silent.    Ardid  then  turned  his 


THE   CHAT  WITH   ARDID        205 

back  to  him  and  said  to  one  of  the  members,  "  Tell  that 
gentleman  that  he  had  better  go  away  quickly  by  the  side 
door" — which  Ferrer  at  once  did. 

Ardid  has  since  declared^  that  this  is  a  perverted 
version  of  his  evidence ;  but,  taking  it  at  its  face  value, 
what  is  there  in  it  ?  A  passing  remark  on  the  situation. 
The  prosecution  apparently  seeks  to  suggest  that  in 
Ferrer's  exit  there  was  some  sort  of  conscious  guilt ;  but 
Ardid  declares  that  he  explained  this  in  his  evidence. 
The  fact  was  that  Ferrer  had  fallen  out  with  the  Radical- 
Republican  party,  which  has  its  headquarters  at  the  Casa 
del  Pueblo,  and  Ardid  heard,  or  thought  he  heard,  a 
menacing  hum  in  the  crowded  cafe  which  showed  that  his 
presence  there  was  resented ;  wherefore  "  to  avoid  un- 
pleasantness "  he  "  indicated  "  to  Ferrer  that  he  should 
leave  by  the  side  door,  leading  into  the  Calle  de  Casanovas. 
As  we  have  abundant  proof  of  the  momentary  feud  between 
Ferrer  and  the  Lerrouxists,  this  explanation  of  the  matter 
is  entirely  credible. 

From  a  rational  point  of  view,  the  sole  importance  of 
the  incident  arises  from  the  fact  that  Ferrer  appears  to 
have  denied  having  been  at  the  Casa  del  Pueblo  or  seen 
Ardid,  and  only  to  have  retracted  his  denial  on  being 
confronted  with  the  witness.  I  have  satisfied  myself,  from 
the  position  and  character  of  the  Casa  del  Pueblo,  that 
Ferrer  can  scarcely  have  forgotten  the  fact  of  his  having 
been  there.  Here,  then,  is  a  single  case  in  which  he  seems 
to  have  made  a  positively  untrue  statement.^  And  why  ? 
In  all   probability,  because  he  feared  to  compromise  this 

'  In  a  leaflet  published  in  Barcelona,  Simarro,  vol.  i.  p.  354. 

^  The  following  rule  of  the  Suniaiio  may  i)e  worth  citing  in  this  con- 
nection :  "  The  accused  makes  his  declaration  without  being  placed  under 
oath." 


206  FRANCISCO  FERRER 

very  Ardid,  who,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  was  arrested  in  con- 
nection with  the  riots.  The  commandant  probably  ques- 
tioned him  about  the  Casa  del  Pueblo  without  letting  him 
know  that  Ardid  was  to  figure  as  a  witness  against  him ; 
and  Ferrer  was  probably  on  his  guard  not  to  make  any 
admission  that  could  possibly  be  used  against  the  old 
Republican  campaigner. 

Oddly  enough,  the  Prosecutor  accepts,  without  attempt- 
ing  to   cast   doubt   upon   it,    the   statement   that   Ferrer 
intended  to  return  to  Mongat  by  the  six  o'clock  train — an 
intention  which  cannot  but  seem  surprising  in  the  head  of 
the   revolt,  especially  as  it  implies  that  the  organizer-in- 
chief  did  not  know  that  the  railway  line  was  to  be  cut. 
When  Ferrer  left  the  station,  he  was  seen  by  "  the  agent 
of  vigilance,  Don    Angel   Fernandez   Bermejo,   intrusted 
•with  the  duty  of  shadowing  him"  mingling  with  seditious 
groups  on  the  Plaza  de  Antonio  Lopez,  again  near  the 
Atarazanas  barracks,  and  yet  again  on  the  Rambla.   When 
one  of  the  groups  was  dispersed  by  a  charge  of  the  police, 
he  lost  sight  of  Ferrer,  but  then  saw  him  again  going  into 
the  Hotel  Internacional,  where,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  he 
dined.     The  sole  importance  of  this  evidence  is  to  show 
that  Ferrer  was  shadowed.    He  could  scarcely  move  about 
the  streets  without  getting  into  "groups,"  and  he  would 
naturally  exchange  a  few  observations  with  this  man  and 
that.     Of  anything  pointing  to  leadership  the  spy  has  no 
word  to  say. 

It  was  very  likely  at  the  same  time,  though  they  place 
it  a  little  earlier,  that  two  soldiers  saw  a  man  in  a  blue 
suit  and  a  straw  hat  in  a  group  of  people  on  the  Plaza  de 
Antonio  Lopez.  When  they  requested  him  to  move  on, 
he  pointed  to  a  poster  on  the  wall  proclaiming  the  state 
of  siege,  and  said,  "  May  one  not  read  that  ? "    This  seems 


THE  MISSING  REVOLVER-MEN    207 

an  innocent  and  even  laudable  desire  ;  yet  the  Prosecutor 
singles  out  the  incident  as  being  of  "  notable  intrinsic 
importance,"  and  is  triumphant  when  the  soldiers  identify 
Ferrer  "  three  times "  *  in  a  group  of  prisoners.  Very 
probably  the  man  was  Ferrer,  who  was  certainly  in  that 
part  of  the  town  about  that  time  ;  but  where  is  the 
"  intrinsic  importance  "  of  the  fact  ?  Shortly  afterwards, 
the  Prosecutor  tries  to  give  it  extrinsic  importance  by 
citing  the  evidence  of  two  officers  (a  Colonel  and  Captain) 
who,  on  the  28th,  arrested  some  persons  armed  with  new 
Smith  revolvers,  who  said  the  pistols  had  been  given  to 
them  by  a  man  they  did  not  know,  wearing  a  blue  suit 
and  a  straw  hat.  How  many  men  in  Barcelona  wore  blue 
suits  and  straw  hats  ?  And  what  had  become  of  the 
arrested  revolver-men  ?  If  one  or  two  of  them  had 
identified  Ferrer  as  the  distributor  of  the  weapons,  their 
evidence  would  have  been  worth  all  the  rest  put  together. 
The  Defender  did  not  fail  to  enquire  what  had  become 
of  these  men,  and  the  Assessor  ridiculed  the  question,  on 
the  ground  that,  as  the  importance  of  the  "  blue  suit  and 
straw  hat "  was  not  recognized  until  the  two  troopers  were 
examined  towards  the  end  of  September,  the  Colonel 
and  Captain  could  not  have  been  expected  to  pay  much 
attention  to  the  remark  of  the  revolver-men  two  months 
earlier.  But  this  did  not  meet  the  point.  The  odd  thing 
is  that,  when  rebels  or  suspected  rebels  were  being  arrested 
wholesale,  two  men  found  in  the  possession  of  arms,  con- 
fessedly accepted  by  them  for  revolutionary  purposes, 
should  either  have  been  allowed  to  go  free,  or  should  have 
been    irrecoverably   lost   among   the   thousand   prisoners. 

'  In  this  and  another  case  of  idcnlification,  the  "three  times  "  are  specially 
insisted  un.  But  surely  any  one  who  can  identify  a  man  once  can  du  so  three 
times. 


208  FRANCISCO   FERRER 

The  Assessor's  argument  renders  it  no  whit  the  less  true 
that  the  failure  to  produce  these  men,  or  at  least  one  of 
them,  deprives  the  incident  of  all  significance. 

Now  appears  on  the  scene  a  curious  and  rather  impor- 
tant figure.  As  Ferrer  was  sitting,  about  half  past  nine 
o'clock,  in  the  cafe  under  the  Hotel  Internacional,  where 
he  had  dined,  he  saw  passing  a  youth  named  Francisco 
Domenech,  assistant  in  a  barber's  shop  at  Masnou,  and 
secretary  of  the  Republican  Committee  of  that  village. 
Ferrer  called  him  in,  and,  learning  that  he  proposed  to 
walk  home  that  night,  suggested  that  they  might  go 
together.  From  the  cafe,  says  Domenech,  they  went  to 
the  office  of  the  Lerrouxist  (Republican)  paper  El 
Progreso,  to  learn  "what  the  comrades  were  going  to 
do" — an  odd  inquiry  for  the  "author  and  chief"  to  make. 
Thence  they  went  to  a  cafd,  where  Ferrer  met  some  of  his 
friends,  and  nothing  particular  happened  ;  and  presently 
they  returned  to  the  office  of  El  Progreso.  Ferrer  went 
in  alone,  and  on  coming  out  he  remarked,  according  to 
Domenech,  that  neither  Iglesias  nor  others  had  been 
willing  to  sign  a  document  which  he  had  brought  with 
him,  an  address  to  the  Government  demanding  the  cessa- 
tion of  embarkations  for  Melilla,  and  threatening,  in  case 
of  refusal,  to  make  a  revolution,  the  signatories  placing 
themselves  at  the  head  of  the  people.  Iglesias  had  said 
that  the  strikers  had  better  return  to  work,  and  had  asked 
what  forces  he  counted  upon  for  the  course  proposed. 

Now,  Iglesias  denies  that  he  saw  Ferrer  that  night.  It 
is  true,  however,  that  some  such  document  had  been  drawn 
up  by  Moreno ;  and  it  is  true  that,  had  the  project  gone 
forward,  Ferrer  would  have  signed  it.  But  it  is  not  true 
that  the  design  was  his,  that  he  carried  the  document 
around,  or  that  he  took  any  leading  part  in  the  negotia- 


THE   BARBER  OF  MASNOU        209 

tion.  In  so  far  as  Domenech's  testimony  points  in  that 
direction,  it  is  false.  Domenech  may  have  misunderstood, 
or  his  evidence  may  have  received  a  little  twist  in  the 
reporting.  We  shall  see  before  we  have  done  with 
Domenech  that  there  was  no  possibility  of  testing  or 
rectifying  his  statements. 

From  the^office  of  El  Progreso,  Ferrer  and  Domenech 
set  forth  to  walk  home.  Their  way  lay  through  the  Calle 
de  la  Princesa,  and  in  that  street  they  met  Moreno. 
Ferrer  told  him  that  there  were  representatives  of  the 
Solidaridad  Obrera  at  the  office  of  El  Progreso,  trying  if 
they  could  come  to  an  understanding  with  the  Radicals, 
and  suggested  that  Moreno  should  go  and  see  what 
was  happening.  He  replied :  "  They  [presumably  the 
Radicals]  are  already  compromised  "  ;  and  added,  accord- 
ing to  Domenech,  "  Woe  to  whoever  fails  us,  for  we  will 
do  with  him  as  they  do  with  traitors  in  Russia  !  " 

Then  Ferrer  and  the  little  barber  walked  on  together, 
parting  at  Mongat  between  four  and  five  in  the  morning. 
We  shall  meet  our  friend  Domenech  again  a  little  later. 

In  all  these  incidents  of  the  26th,  is  there  a  single  one 
that  shows  Ferrer  taking  a  directing  part  in  the  distur- 
bances ?  I  submit  that  the  evidence,  even  accepting  it  at 
its  face  value,  is  wholly  inconsistent  with  such  a  view.  He 
is  an  interested  onlooker,  no  more ;  and  after  six  o'clock 
he  is  an  onlooker  only  because  the  trains  are  not  running, 
and  he  prefers  (as  he  said  to  Litran)  to  take  his  eleven-mile 
walk  in  the  cool  of  the  early  morning.  We  find  him  willing 
to  join  in  sending  a  threatening  address  to  the  Government ; 
and  if  that  willingness  be  a  punishable  offence,  he  deserved 
whatever  punishment  the  law  assigns  to  it.  But  between 
that  and  being  author  and  chief  of  the  rebellion  there  is  all 
the  difference   in   the   world.     Had   he   had   any   guilty 

P 


210  FRANCISCO  FERRER 

consciousness,  he  would  scarcely  have  been  at  pains  to 
attach  a  witness  to  his  every  footstep.  Domenech  asserts, 
no  doubt  with  truth,  that  he  and  Ferrer  were  the  merest 
acquaintances.  Why  should  Ferrer,  had  he  been  organizing 
and  directing  the  rebellion,  have  put  his  life  in  the  hands  of 
a  casual  barber's  assistant  ? 


XIX 

THE  EVIDENCE — RELEVANT  ACCUSATIONS 

It  is  almost  a  relief  to  come  upon  two  accusations  to  which 
a  certain  weight  would  doubtless  have  been  attached  in  a 
competent  court  of  law.  One  is  the  unsupported  assertion 
of  a  single  man  ;  the  other  rests  on  the  testimony  of  several 
witnesses. 

In  tracing  the  growth  of  the  legend  of  Ferrer's  culpability, 
we  saw  (p.  164)  that  his  first  definite  accuser  was  a  certain 
Colldeforns,  Colldefrons,  or  Colldefons.  This  person's 
evidence  acquires  some  importance  from  the  fact  of  its 
being  unique.  He,  and  he  alone,  professes  to  have  seen 
Ferrer  actively  taking  part  in  the  disturbances — doing 
nothing  in  particular,  indeed,  but  apparently  in  command 
of  a  group  of  insurgents.  Quite  naturally,  then,  the  Prose- 
cutor, Assessor,  and  Auditor  all  lay  special  stress  upon 
this  deposition.  It  is  the  corner-stone  of  their  case,  so  we 
must  look  rather  closely  into  its  solidity. 

Don  Francisco  de  Paula  Colldefons,  a  journalist  on  the 
staff"  of  various  clerical  papers,  asserted  in  one  of  them,  El 
Sigh  FiUuro,  as  early  as  August  9,  that  he  saw  Ferrer  "  at 
the  head  of  a  group  {capitaneando  wi  grupo)  in  front  of  the 
Liceo  Theatre  on  the  Rambla."  When  he  appeared  before 
the  Examining  Commandant,  however,  his  statement  be- 
came considerably  less  positive.  This  is 'how  the  Prose- 
cutor reports  it — 


212  FRANCISCO   FERRER 

The  said  gentleman  affirms  that  on  Tuesday,  the  27th, 
between  seven-thirty  and  eight-thirty  in  the  evening,  he 
saw  a  group,  in  the  Rambla,  in  front  of  the  Liceo,  captained 
(mark  that  well)  captained  by  a  person  who  seemed  to  him 
to  be  Francisco  Ferrer  Guardia,  whom  he  knew  only  from 
a  photograph  ;  but  he  acquired  the  conviction  that  it  must 
be  he  from  hearing  the  passers-by  say  so.  The  group 
passed  down  the  Calle  del  Hospital.  Furthermore,  .  .  .  the 
witness  identified  Ferrer  three  times  in  a  circle  of  prisoners 
as  the  man  he  had  seen  in  that  situation. 

Clearly,  this  evidence  is  worth  looking  into. 

What  weight  can  we  attach  to  the  identification  ?  The 
witness  who  knew  Ferrer  from  a  photograph  would,  of 
course,  refresh  his  memory  of  the  photograph  before 
proceeding  to  the  identification,  so  that  it  is  scarcely 
surprising  that  he  should  recognize  his  man.  Moreover,  we 
have  seen  that  the  authorities  had  been  careful  to  dress 
Ferrer  in  a  ridiculous  garb,  which  would  make  him  stand 
out  from  any  group  of  ordinary  prisoners,  and  insure 
attention  being  drawn  to  him.  The  identification,  then 
amounts  to  nothing.  It  will  be  remembered  that  Ferrer 
was  identified  by  at  least  one  witness  (p.  185)  whose 
evidence  the  prosecution  subsequently  dropped.  ^ 

Now  as  to  the  actual  incident :  It  took  place  "  between 
seven-thirty  and  eight-thirty  in  the  evening  "  ;  yet  it  does 
not  seem  to  have  occurred  to  any  one  to  inquire  by  what 
light  Colldefons  recognized  a  man  whom  he  knew  only 
from  photographs.  I  have  satisfied  myself  that  at  seven- 
thirty  on  July  27  it  would  be  barely  possible  to  see  a  man's 
features  by  the  evening  light  at  the  spot  indicated ;  at 
seven-forty-five  or  later  it  would  be  quite  impossible.  But 
what  about  electric  light  ?  I  have  been  unable  to  find  any 
conclusive  evidence  as  to  whether  the  electric  lamps  were 


"CAPTAINING   A   GROUP"         213 

or  were  not  lighted  on  the  Rambla  that  evening.  The 
probability  is  that  they  were  not.  In  any  case,  the  light 
must  either  have  been  very  dim,  or  else  artificial  and 
deceptive.  The  fact  that  this  point  was  wholly  neglected 
shows  the  danger  of  relying  upon  witnesses  who  cannot  be 
cross-examined.  Furthermore,  no  one  has  enquired  what 
Sr.  Colldefons  meant  when  he  said  that  the  man  in 
question  was  "  captaining "  the  group.  What  were  the 
signs  and  tokens  of  his  captaincy  ?  On  this  point,  too,  a 
little  cross-examination  would  not  have  been  amiss. 

What,  now,  was  the  probability  of  Ferrer's  being  in 
Barcelona  on  the  evening  of  the  27th?  The  authorities 
had  carefully  refused  to  admit  the  evidence  of  Ferrer's 
family,  who  positively  assert  that  he  never  quitted  Mas 
Germinal  that  day.  But,  even  with  this  testimony  ruled 
out,  what  do  we  know  ?  We  know  that  he  reached  home 
on  foot  about  five  on  the  Tuesday  morning  ;  and  we  know 
that  all  public  means  of  communication,  by  which  he  could 
have  returned  to  Barcelona  that  day,  were  interrupted. 
Can  we  conceive  that,  at  two  or  three  on  the  Tuesday 
afternoon,  he  started  in  the  blazing  heat  to  walk  eleven 
dusty  miles  into  Barcelona,  in  order  to  "  captain  a  group  "  ? 
Or,  if  he  took  some  private  conveyance,  can  we  conceive 
that,  in  that  thickly  peopled  region  of  gossiping  villagers, 
no  evidence  of  the  fact  should  be  forthcoming  ?  He  must 
not  only  have  gone  to  Barcelona,  but  he  must  have 
returned  before  ten  the  next  morning,  when  he  went,  as 
usual,  to  be  shaved  at  Masnou.  Is  it  conceivable  that 
there  should  be  absolutely  no  evidence  as  to  his  means 
of  transit  either  way  ?  that  not  a  living  soul  should  have 
seen  him  outside  of  Mas  Germinal,  save  Don  Francisco  de 
Paula  Colldefons  ?  Where  was  "  the  agent  of  vigilance, 
Don  Angel  Fernandez  Bermejo,  intrusted  with  the  duty 


214  FRANCISCO  FERRER 

of  shadowing  him "  ?  He  was  not  a  man  unknown  in 
Barcelona,  nor  one  whose  comings  and  goings  were  apt 
to  be  unmarked.  If  he  was  "captaining  a  group,"  he 
must  have  made  himself  at  least  moderately  conspicuous  ; 
yet,  out  of  the  thousands  who  were  in  the  streets  that 
night,  the  one  discoverable  person  who  recognized  him 
was  a  Catholic  journalist  who  did  not  know  him  ! 

And  this  Catholic  journalist  who  did  not  know  him 
is  the  one  witness  who  even  purports  to  present  him  in 
the  light  of  a  chief  or  director,  not  of  the  revolt,  but  of 
a  particular  g)'upo  de  revoltosos. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  assume  that  CoUdefons  was 
lying,  or  that  he  mistook  somebody  else  for  Ferrer. 
More  probably,  I  think,  he  was  mistaken  as  to  the  date. 
If  he  had  referred  the  incident  to  the  26th  instead  of 
the  27th,  we  could  have  believed  him  without  difficulty. 
In  going  from  the  Hotel  Internacional  to  the  office  of 
El  Progreso,  Ferrer  would  naturally  cross  the  Rambla, 
practically  in  front  of  the  Liceo,  and  proceed  down  the 
Calle  del  Hospital.  As  for  the  "  captaining  "  of  a  group, 
it  must  be  remembered  that  the  Rambla  of  Barcelona  is, 
in  the  most  normal  times,  an  exceedingly  populous  and 
animated  thoroughfare,  and  that  on  that  evening  of 
excitement  it  was  doubtless  crowded  with  "  groups " 
proceeding  in  every  direction.  Ferrer  may  simply  have 
chanced  to  be  walking  at  or  near  the  head  of  a 
group,  with  which  in  fact  he  may  have  had  no  connection. 
The  evidence  of  his  "captaincy"  is,  as  we  have  noted, 
nil. 

Vastly  more  serious  is  the  evidence  of  the  village 
Republicans  of  Masnou  and  Premia  de  Mar.  If  we  can 
believe  it,  we  must  hold  Ferrer  guilty  of  an  indiscretion 
which  was  doubtless  liable  to  some  punishment,  though 


THE   VILLAGE  REPUBLICANS     215 

it  was  immeasurably  different  from  the  crime  of  being 
"author  and  chief  of  the  revolt."  But  can  we  believe 
the  evidence  ? 

This  is  how  it  runs  :  On  Wednesday  the  28th,  Ferrer, 
as  was  his  custom  of  a  Wednesday  morning/  presented 
himself  at  the  barber's  shop  at  Masnou,  where  Domenech 
was  employed.  According  to  Domenech,  he  sent  for  one 
Juan  Puig  Ventura,  nicknamed  Llarch,  or  "tall,"  the 
President  of  the  Republican  Committee.  On  Llarch's 
arrival,  Ferrer  proposed  to  him  that  he  should  go  to  the 
Ayuntamiento,  or  town  hall,  and  there  proclaim  the 
Republic.  So  far,  Domenech ;  but  Llarch  himself  goes 
further  and  says  that  Ferrer  urged  him  "to  begin  by 
inciting  people  to  sally  forth  and  burn  churches  and 
convents."  Llarch  replied  that  he  did  not  see  how  that 
would  advance  the  Republican  cause ;  to  which  Ferrer 
answered  that  he  cared  nothing  about  the  Republic, 
but  was  simply  bent  on  revolution.  He  then  proposed 
that  Llarch  should  accompany  him  to  Premia,  which  that 
gentleman,  though  shocked  at  his  suggestions,  agreed  to 
do.  At  Premia  they  met  the  Alcalde,  or  Mayor,  to  whom 
P'errcr  made  similar  proposals.  Then,  on  their  way  back 
to  Masnou,  they  met  a  group  of  young  men  coming  from 
Barcelona,  who  told  them  what  was  going  on,^  whereupon 

'  The  prosecuting  officers  represented  that  on  tliis  occasion  he  had  himself 
clean-shaven  for  purposes  of  disguise.  The  evidence  suggests  notliing  of  the 
sort.  As  he  wore  only  a  moustache  and  a  sort  of  imperial,  his  cheeks  were 
always  shaved  ;  and  it  was  his  custom  to  submit  himself,  every  Wednesday 
and  Saturday  morning,  to  the  ministrations  of  Sr.  Domenech  or  one  of  his 
colleagues.  If  he  ever  shaved  in  order  to  disguise  himself,  it  must  have  been 
after  he  went  into  hiding. 

*  If  the  evidence  of  Colldefons  were  true,  this  would  be  no  news  to  Ferrer, 
who  must  himself  have  returned  quite  recently  from  Barcelona.  Again,  if  the 
evidence  of  both  Colldefons  and  Llarch  were  true,  it  would  be  strange  that 
Ferrer  should  have  said  nothing  to  Llarch  as  to  his  having  taken  J^art  in  the 
scenes  of  the  "  tragic  night,"  in  Barcelona, 


216  FRANCISCO   FERRER 

Ferrer  said,  "  Good  !  Good  !  Courage  !  It  must  all  be 
destroyed  ! " 

The  Alcalde  himself,  Don  Domingo  Casas,  and  the 
acting  secretary  of  the  Ayuntamiento,  Alvarez,  are  quoted 
as  emphatically  confirming  the  statement  that  Ferrer 
proposed  the  proclamation  of  the  Republic,  and  the 
Deputy  Alcalde,  Mustards,  seems  to  have  told  the  same 
story.  Finally,  Francisco  Calvet,  waiter  at  the  Fra- 
ternidad  Republicana  of  Premia,  relates  that  at  half- 
past  twelve  on  the  day  in  question  Llarch  appeared  at 
the  cafe  with  another  person  whom  he  (Calvet)  did  not 
know — 

"  Presently  arrived  Casas,  Mustares,  and  Alvarez  ;  and 
then  the  unknown  said :  '  I  am  Ferrer  Guardia.'  The 
witness  adds  that  this  produced  a  startling  effect  on  those 
present,  and  especially  on  himself,  on  account  of  all  the 
evil  he  had  heard  of  that  person  ;  and  that  then  Ferrer 
added,  addressing  the  Alcalde,  *  I  have  come  to  say  to 
you  that  you  must  proclaim  the  Republic  in  Premia.' 
The  Alcalde  replied,  '  Sr.  Ferrer,  I  do  not  accept 
these  words '  ;  upon  which  the  accused  answered,  *  How 
should  you  not  accept  them,  since  the  Republic  is  pro- 
claimed in  Madrid,  Barcelona,  Valencia,  and  other 
capitals  ? ' " 

These  allegations,  I  confess,  seem  to  me  by  far  the 
strongest  part  of  the  whole  case  for  the  prosecution.  On 
examination,  we  find  reason  to  discount  them  heavily ; 
but  I  am  inclined  to  think  that  there  must  be  a  residue 
of  truth  in  them. 

What  is  Ferrer's  own  account  of  the  matter?  We 
have  it  in  the  long  letter  to  Charles  Malato,  written  on 
October  i.  He  says  that  the  barber's  shop  at  Masnou 
rapidly  filled  with  people  who  wanted  to  question  him  about 


'S. 


o 
o 

o 


o 
o 


^  -a 

o  ^ 

-<  o 

—  o 

•— •  -4-* 

a;  oj 

u;  'J 


tj      c 


-a 


TO   PREMIA   WITH   LLARCH      217 

the  events  at  Barcelona  ;  for  the  report  had  got  abroad 
that  he  was  connected  with  them.  He  told  them  that  he 
was  as  anxious  as  they  for  news,  since  he  wanted  to  attend 
to  his  publishing  affairs  as  soon  as  business  was  resumed. 
Just  then  a  small  steamboat  came  along  the  coast  from 
Barcelona,  and  seemed  to  be  going  to  put  in  at  Premid ; 
whereupon  he  proposed  to  Llarch,  who  had  just  been 
telling  how  he  had  quieted  a  riotous  crowd,  that  they 
should  walk  on  to  Premid  and  learn  what  news  the 
steamer  brought.  But  she  did  not,  after  all,  put  in  at 
Premia;  so  they  very  soon  returned,  Llarch  to  Masnou, 
Ferrer  to  Mongat.  During  the  five  or  ten  minutes  they 
spent  in  Premia,  they  were  surrounded  by  people  asking 
for  news — "as  we,  in  turn,  asked  them."  "It  appears," 
Ferrer  continues,  "  that  the  Republican  Mayor  of  Premid 
was  among  the  group  ;  and  he  now  declares  that  I  pro- 
posed to  him  to  proclaim  the  Republic,  and  to  burn  the 
convent  and  the  church ;  which  is  as  false  as  Llarch's 
assertion  to  the  same  effect.  The  judge  confronted  me 
with  these  two  canailles^  who  stuck  to  their  assertions  in 
spite  of  my  protests,  reminding  them  that  we  exchanged 
only  the  phrases  that  every  one  was  exchanging  in  those 
days :  What  is  going  on  ?  What  is  the  news  from  here, 
from  there  ?     What  are  people  saying  ? " 

At  the  confrontations,  Llarch  is  reported  as  having 
said  "  that  he  was  sure  Ferrer  would  abound  in  explana- 
tions and  denials,  but  that  he  nevertheless  maintained 
what  he  had  stated  "  ;  while  the  Alcalde  said,  "  One  who 
denies  the  truth,  as  you  do,  is  capable  of  denying  the  light 
of  the  sun." 

We  have,  then,  six  witnesses — Domenech,  Llarch,  the 
Alcalde,  Mustards,  Alvarez,  and  Calvct — who  all  aver  that 
Ferrer  urged  the   proclamation  of  the  Republic,  two  of 


218  FRANCISCO  FERRER 

them  adding  that  he  also  incited  to  convent-burning. 
This  is  unquestionably  pretty  strong  evidence.  But  there 
are  one  or  two  remarks  to  be  made  as  to  the  credit  of  the 
witnesses. 

Domenech,  to  begin  with,  having  given  his  evidence, 
was  got  out  of  the  country  with  all  despatch.  His  own 
account  is  that  "friends"  gave  him  money,  and  that  he 
started  for  South  America  on  the  i6th  of  August.  iThe 
"friends"  are  stated  to  have  been  the  Barcelona  Com- 
mittee of  Social  Defence,  an  ultra-Catholic  organization, 
which  bought  him  off  his  military  service  and  gave 
him  £60  with  which  to  clear  out.  This  assertion  was 
made,  in  somewhat  veiled  terms,  by  Captain  Galcerdn, 
in  his  speech  for  Ferrer's  defence,  and  I  have  not  seen 
it  denied.  At  all  events,  I  have  it  from  Sr.  Domenech's 
own  lips  that  "friends"  made  it  possible  for  him  to 
absent  himself  for  three  or  four  months — until,  in  fact, 
Ferrer  was  satisfactorily  dead.  His  evidence,  then,  though 
costly,  can  scarcely  be  called  valuable. 

Of  the  other  five,  three  at  least — Llarch,  the  Alcalde 
and  Alvarez  (I  am  not  quite  sure  about  Mustares) — were 
arrested  on  the  charge  of  taking  part  in  the  disturbances, 
and  were  liberated,  without  trial,  after  giving  their  evidence. 
This  is,  on  the  face  of  it,  not  quite  reassuring.     There  are 
several  indications  that,  in  an  irresolute,  half-hearted  way, 
the  good  folks  of  Premia  had  coquetted  with  the  idea  of 
revolution.     It  is  impossible,  even  if  it  were  worth  while, 
to  get  at  the  exact  truth.     "That  was  a  fine  time,"  a 
shrewd  village  matron  said  to  me,  "  for  any  one  who  had 
a  grudge  against  a  neighbour."     There  is  talk   of  arms 
having  been  distributed  by  the  Alcalde  "for  the  preserva- 
tion of  order" — a  laudable  object,  but  liable  to  miscon- 
struction.    It  seems  certain  that  an  attack  upon  the  fine 


nc 


''>->tn 


THE   APPROACH    TO    PREMIA. 
(With  the  Convent  which  was  /h>/  burnt.) 


m- 


THE    AYUNTAMIENTO   OF    PREMIA. 
(With  the  balcony  from  which  the  Rcpubhc  was  ;/<?/  proclaimed.) 

\^To /ace p.  219. 


TERRORIZED   WITNESSES        219 

new  monastery  ^  of  the  Brothers  of  Christian  Doctrine,  on 
the  outskirts  of  the  village,  was  at  one  time  contemplated  ; 
but  I  was  positively  assured  that  it  never  came  off,  and 
that  some  confused  talk,  quoted  by  the  Prosecutor,  about 
dynamite  having  been  used  in  the  assault,  was  absolute 
nonsense.     The  only  riotous  proceeding  which  really  took 
place,  so  far  as  I  could  ascertain,  was  the  destruction  of 
some  railway  property.     The  upshot  seems  to  be  that  the 
villagers,  excited  by  wild  rumours  of  revolutionary  successes 
in  Barcelona  and  elsewhere,  hovered  for  some  time  on  the 
brink  of  an  outbreak ;  and  there  is  not  the  slightest  reason 
to  doubt  that  the  Alcalde  and  other  Republicans  hovered 
as  near  the  verge  as  anybody.     In  some  unaccountable 
way,  it  came  to  be  believed,  towards  the  end  of  August, 
that  Ferrer  was  hidden  in  the  Alcalde's  house.     In  short, 
a  very  strong  current  of  suspicion  set  against  that  magis- 
trate and  his  associates.      They  cannot  have  been  very 
guilty  in  act,  for  no   great   harm   had   been   done ;    but 
whether  their  intention  and  effort  were  equally  innocent 
it  is  hard  to  say.     When  one  realizes  the  whole  position, — 
the  panic  that  prevailed  ;  the  denunciations  flying  around  ; 
the  jails  (and  such  jails  !)  full  of  prisoners  ;  and  always  on 
the  horizon   the  grim    silhouette   of  Montjuich,  with   its 
tradition  of  torture, — one  is  not  inclined  to  wonder  over- 
much if  these  poor  villagers  (a  butcher,  a  blacksmith,  etc.) 
were  tempted  to  give  to  their  evidence  just  the  little  twist 
that  the  authorities  so  ardently  desired.     We  may  remem- 
ber, too,  that  at  the  time  when  the  first  investigations  were 
made  (it  must  have  been  early  in  August,  since  Domcncch 
departed   on  the    i6th)  it  was   universally  believed   that 
Ferrer  was  safely  out  of  the  country ;  and  even  when,  on 

'  It  was  this  building  upon  wliich   Ferrer  was  said  to  have  headed  an 
attack— the  rumour  which  sent  him  into  hiding. 


220  FRANCISCO   FERRER 

the  19th,  the  authorities  learned  that  he  was  not  far  off, 
they  were  astute  enough  to  keep  the  knowledge  strictly  to 
themselves.  What  more  simple  and  harmless,  then,  than 
to  shift  on  to  Ferrer's  shoulders  any  little  indiscretions 
into  which  one  might  have  been  betrayed  ? 

On  the  other  hand,  I  am  inclined  to  regard  the  waiter, 
Calvet,  as  an  honest  witness.  He  was  not  (I  believe) 
arrested,  and  he  had  nothing  to  fear  except,  perhaps, 
loss  of  favour  with  the  Committee  of  the  Fraternidad 
Republicana.  It  will  be  noted  that  he  says  nothing 
about  convent-burning.  Moreover,  I  confess  to  feeling 
that  Ferrer,  in  the  letter  above  quoted,  protests  a  little 
too  much.  It  is  hard  to  believe  that  he  and  Llarch 
walked  from  Masnou  to  Premia  and  back  again  (about 
five  miles  in  all)  without  exchanging  some  definite  views 
on  the  situation.  Ferrer's  version  of  all  that  passed  during 
these  two  hours  is  altogether  too  colourless  and  non- 
committal. The  probability  is,  I  think,  that  there  was  a 
good  deal  of  general  discussion  as  to  the  prospects  of  the 
revolt.  Barcelona  was  entirely  cut  off  from  the  rest  of 
the  world,  and  wild  rumours  were  afloat  as  to  the  success 
of  the  movement  in  other  cities.  The  question  whether, 
and  when,  it  would  be  safe  to  proclaim  the  Republic, 
would  almost  certainly  be  canvassed  among  these  Re- 
publicans ;  and  it  is  possible  that  Calvet,  going  to  and 
fro  about  his  business,  may  have  heard  phrases  which, 
somewhat  modified  by  after  suggestion,  assumed  in  his 
mind  the  form  in  which  he  stated  them.  Nor  can  one 
regard  it  as  quite  improbable  that,  looking  at  the  columns 
of  smoke  rising  over  Barcelona,  Ferrer  may  have  expressed 
a  malign  glee.  In  this  there  is  nothing  inconsistent  with 
his  declaration  to  the  Examining  Commandant  that  "he 
was  opposed  to  what  happened  in  the  week  of  disturb- 


SIX  JUST  MEN  221 

ances."  I  do  not  wish  to  see  any  wrong  done  to  my 
dearest  foe,  and  I  would  not  raise  a  finger  to  injure  him  ; 
but  if,  by  chance,  he  gets  into  trouble — well,  I  do  not 
pretend  to  be  inconsolable. 

The  story  of  the  villagers,  then,  may  very  likely  be 
founded  on  fact,  though  wildly  distorted  by  their  panic- 
stricken  eagerness  to  save  their  own  skins.  Supposing  it, 
however,  to  be  literally  true,  can  we  find  in  it  any  proof 
that  Ferrer  was  the  author  and  chief  of  the  revolt  ?  On 
the  contrary,  it  shows  him,  on  the  day  when  the  revolt 
reached  its  height,  strolling  through  insignificant  villages, 
thirteen  to  fifteen  miles  from  Barcelona,  and  making 
pitifully  ineffectual  attempts  to  lure  certain  law-abiding 
citizens  aside  from  the  paths  of  virture  in  which  their  feet 
are  fixed.  It  is  quite  extraordinary  how  badly  he  chooses 
his  men,  and  how  he  is  rebuffed  at  every  turn  by  their 
unflinching  loyalty  to  Church  and  State.  Strange  that 
these  pillars  of  the  commonwealth  should  actually  have 
been  imprisoned  for  sedition !  Their  story,  if  we  accept 
every  syllable  of  it,  would  show  Ferrer  liable  to  what- 
ever punishment  the  law  assigns  to  an  utterly  abortive 
attempt  to  stir  up  a  local  sedition ;  but  even  the  Spanish 
Military  Code  does  not  make  this  a  capital  offence. 


XX 

THE  EVIDENCE— DOCUMENTARY 

We  have  now  to  consider  the  documentary  evidence,  on 
which  the  prosecution  laid  the  greatest  stress.  It  consisted 
of  one  manuscript  which  Ferrer  admitted  to  be  genuine, 
and  three  type-written  circulars,  forming  practically  one 
document,  of  which  he  denied  all  knowledge. 

If  the  genuine  document  is  all  genuine,  it  shows  that 
at  the  date  of  its  composition — 1892 — Ferrer  was  a  violent 
revolutionist,  prepared  to  go  all  lengths  in  order  to  over- 
throw the  existing  polity.  I  do  not  say  that  it  is  not  all 
genuine;  but  there  are  some  mysterious  circumstances 
about  it  which,  I  own,  baffle  my  comprehension.  I  did 
my  best,  when  in  Spain,  to  obtain  access  to  the  original, 
but  did  not  succeed. 

In  1892,  Ferrer  attended  a  Congress  of  Freethinkers 
in  Madrid  ;  and  it  was  at  this  time  that  he  drafted  a 
paper,  never  printed  or  otherwise  issued,  which  figures  in 
the  indictment  as  a  "manuscript  proclamation."  What 
the  Prosecutor  says  of  it  is  that,  in  view  of  a  contemplated 
rising,  it  proposed  the  organization  of  a  band  of  300  revolu- 
tionaries, and  that  persons  willing  to  join  this  band  were 
invited  to  address  to  Ferrer— Poste  Restante,  Rue  de 
Lafayette,  Paris— information  in  the  following  form  : — 

I  have  one,  two,  three,  or   more  friends,  names  and 
addresses  given,  with  or  without  means  of  defence  (arms) ; 


THE   1892   DOCUMENT  223 

able  to  travel  (that  is  to  say,  able  to  pay  the  fare  to 
Madrid)  ;  willing  to  travel  (that  is  to  say,  willing  but  lack- 
ing the  means) ;  with  provisions  for  one,  two,  etc.  (that  is 
to  say  dynamite). 

Now,  the  question  at  once  arises :  are  the  words  in 
parentheses,  and  especially  the  last  phrase,  written  by 
Ferrer  himself?  or  are  they  conjectural  explanations 
interpolated  by  the  prosecution  ?  The  Prosecutor,  in 
reading  the  passage  to  the  Court,  was  silent  on  this 
essential  point ;  but  the  Assessor  in  his  "  dictamen " 
(delivered,  be  it  remembered,  in  the  absence  of  the  accused 
and  his  Defender)  affirmed  emphatically  that  the  phrase 
"  that  is  to  say  dynamite,"  ^  was  written  in  Ferrer's  own 
hand.  It  seems  at  first  sight  absurd  that  Ferrer  should 
have  given  (so  to  speak)  at  once  the  cipher  and  the  key  ; 
but  it  must  be  admitted,  on  second  thoughts,  that  this  is 
not  in  itself  impossible,  since  his  purpose  was  apparently 
to  instruct  his  correspondents  how  to  communicate  with 
him  in  more  or  less  veiled  terms.  The  matter  assumes  a 
different,  and  rather  puzzling,  complexion,  however,  when 
we  turn  to  a  letter  written  by  Ferrer  on  October  i,  1909, 
from  the  Model  Prison,  to  his  friend  Charles  Malato.^  In 
it  he  tells  how  the  Examining  Commandant  insisted  on 
laying  great  stress  on  this  "  brouillon,"  in  spite  of  Ferrer's 

'  The  Assessor,  'by  Ithc  way,  misquoted.  The  words  in  parentheses, 
according  to  the  Prosecutor,  were  "  querra  decir  dinamita "  ;  the  Assessor 
makes  them  •'  que  querra  decir  dinamita."  The  grammatical  nicety  here 
involved  may  seem  very  trifling  ;  but  nothing  ought  to  be  held  trifling  where 
a  man's  life  is  at  stake.  Without  the  que  the  parenthesis  is  equivalent  to 
"  That  is  to  say  dynamite  " — a  phrase  which  might  no  doubt  have  been  em.- 
ployed  by  the  writer  of  the  document,  but  rather  suggests  an  interpretation 
inserted  by  some  one  else.  With  the  que  the  phrase  is  equivalent  to  "  Which 
will  mean  dynamite  " — an  explanation  having  all  the  appearance  of  proceed- 
ing from  the  writer  of  the  document. 

*  Francisco  Ferrer — Sa  Vie — Son  CEuvre,  p,  55. 


224  FRANCISCO  FERRER 

protestation  that  he  had  dashed  it  off  seventeen  years 
before,  and  had  never  thought  of  it  again.  The  Comman- 
dant, he  continues,  "  stuck  to  his  point,  saying  that  he  had 
sat  up  several  nights  till  three  in  the  morning  studying 
the  draft  word  by  word,  and  trying  to  decipher  its  true 
meaning."  Now,  if  the  document  left  Ferrer's  hand  as 
the  Prosecutor  read  it,  and  the  Assessor  vouched  for  it, 
there  would  surely  have  been  no  need  for  this  official  to 
cudgel  his  brains  over  it.  The  conclusion  seems  almost 
irresistible  that  the  words  in  parentheses  were  the  result 
of  the  Commandant's  vigils  ;  for  it  will  scarcely  be  argued 
that  Ferrer  possessed  the  superhuman  foresight  and  cun- 
ning to  make  up  this  story,  nine  days  before  his  trial,  in 
order  to  throw  dust  in  the  eyes  of  posterity.  We  can 
believe  the  parentheses  to  be  interpolations  without 
suspecting  the  Assessor  of  mendacity.  It  is  quite  possible 
that,  in  the  course  of  copying  or  type-writing,  the  distinc- 
tion between  original  text  and  interpolations  might  be 
overlooked  ;  so  that  both  Prosecutor  and  Assessor  might 
sincerely,  though  erroneously,  believe  the  explanations 
in  brackets  to  be  Ferrer's. 

This  account  of  the  matter  seemed  to  me  almost 
convincing,  until  I  read  carefully  the  whole  text  of  the 
*'  proclamation  "  as  it  was  published  in  the  Madrid  news- 
papers of  September  i6,  in  gross  violation  of  the  secrecy 
of  the  "Sumario."  If  this  text  be  accurate,  it  matters 
very  little  whether  it  was  Ferrer  or  another  who  put  in 
the  words  "  querra  decir  dinamita " ;  for  he  must  have 
had  dynamite  in  his  mind.  Here  are  the  two  principal 
paragraphs  of  the  manifesto,  which  is  addressed,  by  the  way, 
"  A  Los  Congregados  " — to  the  members  of  the  Congress — 

We  are  completely  convinced  that,  on  the  day  when, 


A   SPANISH   GUY   FAWKES  ?       225 

at  one  and  the  same  hour,  the  heads  of  the  royal  family 
and  of  its  ministers  fall,  or  the  buildings  which  shelter 
them  collapse,  there  will  be  such  a  panic  that  our  friends 
will,  without  much  fighting,  be  able  to  seize  the  public 
buildings  and  organize  the  revolutionary  committees 
(^juntas). 

To  you,  the  first  adherents,  will  fall  the  glory  of  being 
the  initiators,  and  the  first  to  die  for  the  cause — a  death 
a  thousand  times  more  honourable  than  to  live  beneath 
the  shameful  oppression  of  a  gang  of  robbers,  led  by  a 
foreign  woman,  and  supported  by  priests  and  exploiters. 
Up,  then,  noble  and  valiant  hearts,  sons  of  the  Cid.  Do 
not  forget  that  in  your  veins  flows  Spanish  blood. ^  Long 
live  the  revolution  !     Long  live  anarchy ! 

If  Ferrer  really  wrote  these  words,  they  show  him  to 
have  been  at  that  time,  in  desire  and  intent,  one  of  the 
great  criminals  of  history — a  sort  of  Spanish  Guy  Fawkes. 
A  more  sanguinary  scheme  has  seldom  been  conceived 
than  that  of  wiping  out  at  one  blow  the  whole  royal 
family  and  government  of  a  nation.  It  is  as  mad  as  it 
is  inhuman  ;  but,  if  it  were  in  any  way  possible,  it  could 
only  be  through  the  lavish  employment  of  high  explo- 
sives, to  which,  indeed,  the  allusion  to  the  collapse  of 
buildings  very  clearly  points.  Supposing,  then,  that  the 
paragraphs  are  authentic,  one  is  bound  to  admit  that 
at  this  time — in  his  thirty-third  year — Ferrer  was  an 
anarchist  in  the  most  violent  and  anti-social  sense  of 
the  term. 

What  arc  the  reasons  for  doubting  their  authenticity  ? 

*  The  romantic  nationalism  of  these  jjlirascs  is  (iiamctrically  opposed  to 
the  no  less  extreme  internationalism  or  anti-nationalism  of  Ferrer's  later 
years,  and  is,  indeed,  not  very  consonant  with  anarchist  views  in  general. 
If  the  paragraph  is  a  forgery,  it  is  a  clumsy  one  ;  but,  as  truth  is  sometimes 
stranger  than  fiction,  it  may  nevertheless  be  genuine. 

Q 


226  FRANCISCO   FERRER 

They  are  not  very  strong,  perhaps,  but  worth  noting. 
One  is  that  the  document,  as  it  appeared  in  the  press, 
was  certainly  garbled  in  one  important  word.  The  phrase 
at  the  end  of  the  above  extract,  quoted  by  the  Assessor 
as  "  Viva  la  anarquia !  " — and  he  was  scarcely  likely  to 
soften  the  actual  expression — appears  in  the  newspapers 
as  "  Viva  la  dinamita !  " — a  suggestive  variant.  But  what 
is  much  more  surprising  is  that  neither  Prosecutor, 
Assessor,  nor  Auditor  should  say  a  single  word  of  the 
first  paragraph  I  have  quoted,  and  the  ruthless  scheme 
of  massacre  set  forth  in  it.  They  rake  up  everything 
they  can  possibly  find  to  Ferrer's  discredit ;  they  retail 
anonymous  whisperings  and  invent  conjectural  slanders; 
but  they  are  absolutely  silent  as  to  an  utterance  which 
shows  him  to  have  been,  at  one  stage  of  his  career, 
potentially  and  in  aspiration  a  colossal  criminal.  I  cannot 
conceive  any  adequate  reason  for  this  reticence.  It  is 
not  as  though  they  admitted  any  statute  of  limitations ; 
for  they  denounce  with  emphasis  the  very  next  paragraph 
of  the  same  document.  Such  audacious  villainy  as  the 
interpolation  of  the  two  paragraphs  quoted  is  scarcely 
conceivable ;  but  it  may  be  worth  while  to  point  out  that 
the  "  proclamation "  would  read  quite  coherently  without 
them.  The  weight  of  probability  is,  on  the  whole,  in 
favour  of  the  genuineness  of  the  whole  document.  That 
seems  the  less  incredible  theory  of  the  two.  But  that 
the  three  prosecuting  officers  should  have  entered  into 
a  conspiracy  of  silence  as  to  this,  the  most  damaging 
feature  by  far  of  their  whole  case,  is  certainly  an  amazing 
circumstance.  When  we  put  alongside  it  Valerio  Raso's 
curious  remark  that  he  had  sat  up  of  nights  trying  to 
fathom  the  meaning  of  the  "  proclamation " — as  if  the 
meaning   (in    the    published    text)   did    not    lie    all   too 


THE   CHANGE   OF  HEART        227 

glaringly  on  the  surface — we  cannot  but  feel  that  there 
is  here  some  mystery  which  ought  to  be  cleared  up. 

Ferrer  strongly  protested  that  he  was  being  tried  for 
what  he  was  said  to  have  done  in  1909,  not  for  what  he 
might  have  thought,  or  written,  or  wished  to  do  in  1892. 
It  cannot  be  said,  however,  that  any  genuine  evidence  as 
to  doctrines  he  had  held  at  any  period  of  his  career  was 
really  inadmissible  ;  but,  having  admitted  this  evidence,  the 
Court  ought  not  to  have  excluded  and  ignored  the  abun- 
dant evidence  of  the  change  which  had  in  the  meantime 
come  over  his  views.  Some  of  this  evidence  was  actually 
included  in  the  Examining  Commandant's  portfolio,  and 
much  more  would  have  been  available  if  the  authori- 
ties had  not  declined  to  admit  testimony  from  abroad.  I 
have  already  discussed  sufficiently  the  reality  of  Ferrer's 
transformation  from  a  militant  politician  into  an  educa- 
tional enthusiast  ;  but  I  have  reserved  some  of  the  proofs 
for  this  point,  so  as  to  emphasize  once  more  his  change  of 
heart.  The  quantity  of  the  evidence  is  almost  unlimited  ; 
but  it  is  not  all  of  equal  validity.  Any  declaration  made 
after  the  Morral  outrage,  and  especially  during  the  time  of 
Ferrer's  imprisonment  in  connection  with  that  crime,  is 
clearly  open  to  suspicion.  On  the  other  hand,  declara- 
tions made  years  before  this  crime  could  possibly  have 
been  dreamt  of:  made  to  persons  whom  he  had  no  interest 
in  deceiving  :  and  followed  up  by  a  long  course  of  action 
entirely  consonant  with  the  sentiments  expressed — such 
declarations  must  be  accepted  as  sincere,  unless  we  are 
to  regard  Ferrer  as  a  miracle  of  far-seeing  and  sedulous 
hypocrisy. 

The  earliest  and  most  categorical  avowal  of  his  con- 
version was  actually,  as  I  have  said,  included  in  the  port- 
folio of  the  prosecution,  though  the  attention  of  the  Court 


228  FRANCISCO   FERRER 

was  not  called  to  it.  It  is  quoted  by  the  Auditor-General 
in  the  "  dictamen  "  wherein  he  recommended  the  Captain- 
General  of  Catalonia  to  confirm  the  sentence  of  the  Military 
Tribunal.  The  Auditor  attaches  no  date  to  it  ;  but  as  it 
is  an  advertisement  or  circular  forecasting  the  establishment 
of  the  Escuela  Moderna,  it  must  clearly  belong  to  1901. 
It  runs  thus  i — 

A  revolutionary  republican  who  has  lived  in  Paris  since 
1885,  and  has  been  disillusionized  by  his  contact  with  the 
Progressists  and  other  Spanish  Republicans,  by  his  obser- 
vations of  the  French  Radical  and  Socialist  parties  [etc., 
etc.]  has  arrived  at  the  conviction  that  the  only  path 
which  leads  to  the  redemption  of  those  who  suffer,  and  to 
a  truly  social  state,  is  the  instruction  of  the  working 
class.  .  .  .  Persuaded  of  this,  he  has  exchanged  his  former 
revolutionary  ardour  for  a  passion  for  popular  education, 
and,  thanks  to  his  constant  propaganda,  has  succeeded  in 
finding  some  resources  for  the  foundation  of  an  emanci- 
patory school.  .  .  .  The  person  in  question,  Francisco 
Ferrer  Guardia,  intends  to  establish  his  school  in  Barce- 
lona, because  he  believes  that  the  Catalan  capital  is  the 
best  centre  for  the  propagation  and  development  of  these 
ideas. 

What  could  be  more  explicit  than  this  ?  It  may  be 
taken  as  a  sign  of  good  faith  on  the  Auditor's  part,  but 
scarcely  of  intelligence,  that  he  should  actually  quote  such 
a  passage  in  a  pronouncement  urging  the  ratification  of 
the  sentence  of  death. 

It  might  conceivably  be  argued  that  this  semi-public 
announcement — it  was  addressed  to  authors  of  school- 
books — was  deliberately  insincere.  But  why  should  Ferrer 
take  the  trouble  of  playing  the  hypocrite  to  his  friend 
Mile.    Henriette   Meyer,   to   whom,    in    1902-— four  years 


LETTER    TO    MI.I.K.    HF.XRIF.TTF.    MEVKK. 


•Oi^..^ ,1„^    ^I^.UL^iin^     Ar^-^    '2*.'^U_  C«/w^«_  ..I , 


yf    .  .  .  •      .  ^  '  - 


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//.    228,    Z2<>] 


THE  XEED   FOR   EDUCATION      229 

before  the  IMorral  attempt,  and  seven  before  the  Barcelona 
outbreak — he  addressed  the  following  letter.^  He  had 
invited  Mile.  Meyer  to  undertake  the  management  of  the 
Escuela  Moderna  ;  she  declined  on  the  ground  that  her 
position  as  the  head  of  a  committee  for  the  abolition  of 
capital  punishment  prevented  her  from  leaving  Paris ; 
whereupon  he  wrote  to  her  expressing  his  regret,  and 
adding — 

In  order  to  change  the  conditions  of  humanity,  there 
is  nothing,  to  my  mind,  more  urgent  than  the  establish- 
ment of  a  system  of  education,  as  we  understand  the  word, 
the  effect  .of  which  would  be  to  accelerate  the  march  of 
progress  and  greatly  to  facilitate  the  realization  of  every 
generous  idea.  That  is  why  it  seems  to  me  that  to  work 
at  present  for  the  abolition  of  the  death  penalty,  or  for  a 
general  strike,'^  without  knowing  how  we  are  to  bring  up 
our  children,  is  to  begin  at  the  wrong  end  and  to  waste 
our  time. 

This  letter,  it  is  true,  was  not  before  the  Court  which 
found  its  writer  guilty  of  organizing  and  leading  a  general 
strike.  The  Court,  or  rather  the  Government,  had  decided 
to  give  no  ear  to  the  voice  of  foreign  "  philosophers,"  as 
the  Assessor  contemptuously  called  them. 

I  shall  quote  only  three  of  the  many  declarations  to  the 
same  effect  made  after  the  Morral  outrage.  One  is  from  a 
letter  of  May  25,  1907,  written  from  the  Model  Prison  at 
Madrid  to  Dr.  Odon  de  Buen,  Professor  of  Natural  History 
in  the  University  of  Barcelona — 

You  know  very  well    how    I   have  been  disabused  of 

'  A  facsimile  of  this  letter  is  here  reproduced,  by  permission,  from 
Ferrer:  rjlumme  el  son  CEuvre,  by  Normandy  &  Lcsueur  (Paris,  A. 
Mericant). 

*  The  italics  are  mine. 


230  FRANCISCO   FERRER 

politics,  and  at  present,  with  these  new  divergencies  and 
strange  orientations,  I  become  more  and  more  rooted  in 
the  conviction  that  by  rationalist  teaching  and  equalitarian 
education,  much,  very  much  more  can  be  effected  than  by 
electoral  contests.^ 

The  second  is  from  a  letter  dated  Paris,  November  5, 
1907,  and  addressed  to  his  friend  O.  Dinale.  Ferrer 
regrets  not  having  been  in  Barcelona  during  a  recent  visit 
of  Professor  Dinale's,  though  he  could  have  shown  him 
only  the  empty  rooms  of  the  Escuela  Moderna,  closed  in 
defiance  of  law.     He  then  proceeds — 

The  attitude  of  the  Government  proves  that  we  are 
right  in  seeking  for  human  emancipation  by  means  of 
education,  and  of  that  alone.  If  we  had  not  been  convinced 
of  it  long  ago,  the  rage  with  which  we  are  persecuted,  and 
the  interest  which  the  reactionaries  manifest  in  discrediting 
our  system  of  teaching,  would  sufficiently  encourage  us  to 
pursue  the  path  we  have  traced  for  ourselves.^ 

Finally,  in  the  before-mentioned  autobiographic  sketch, 
contributed  to  the  Almanack- Anniiaire  de  la  Libre-Pensee 
for  1908,  he  expresses  himself  "convinced  that  without 
adequate  education  to  prepare  the  way,  every  movement  of 
liberation  must  remain  inoperative." 

If  the  reader  will  turn  to  the  "dictamen"  of  the 
Auditor,  he  will  find  that,  on  the  point  of  Ferrer's  con- 
version from  political  to  educational  interests  (as,  indeed, 
on  several  other  points),  the  prosecuting  officers  did  not 
even  take  the  trouble  to  adopt  a  definite  theory  and  stick 
to  it.  In  the  main,  the  theory  either  expressed  or  implied 
is  that  Ferrer  was  simply  a  hypocrite  who  affected  an 
enthusiasm  for  education  in  order  to  cloak  his  schemes  of 

*  Process,  p.  309. 

*  Facsimile  in  Ferrer :  rHomme  et  son  CEuvre,  p.  33. 


AN   INSENSATE   THEORY         231 

violence,  and,  if  possible,  to  elude  responsibility  for  them. 
But  the  Auditor,  at  p.  304,  totally  abandons  that  theory. 
He  admits — as  he  cannot  help  admitting,  in  view  of 
documents  which  he  himself  produces — the  genuineness 
of  Ferrer's  educational  ardour.  How,  then,  does  he  recon- 
cile this  admission  with  the  theory  of  his  guilt  ?  By  an 
assumption  so  nonsensical  that  it  is  hard  to  believe  it 
sincere — by  the  assumption  that  Ferrer  considered  his 
educational  work  completed  in  eight  years  of  narrow  and 
hampered  activity,  one  year  of  which  he  spent  in  prison ! 
Can  any  one  imagine  a  more  insensate  theory  ?  I  have 
shown  that  not  more  than  three  hundred  pupils  can 
possibly  have  passed  through  Ferrer's  hands ;  but  to  this 
it  may  be  replied  that  his  influence  is  not  to  be  measured 
by  the  actual  muster-roll  of  the  Escuela  Moderna.  His 
influence  was  greatly  overrated  by  the  prosecution  ;  but 
even  if  we  accept  their  estimate  of  it,  is  it  not  evident  that 
he  had  scarcely  scratched  the  surface  of  the  illiteracy  and 
backwardness  which  he  deemed  it  necessary  to  overcome 
before  any  solid  political  results  could  be  hoped  for  ?  In 
Ferrer's  mind,  the  work  he  had  undertaken  was  not  one 
which  he  himself  could  possibly  hope  to  complete.  It 
was  a  labour  of  generations.  He  was  merely  running  the 
first  furrow  of  a  field  which  those  who  came  after  would 
have  to  plough.  How  clearly  he  realized  this  may  be 
seen  in  the  document  he  addressed,  on  the  last  day  of  his 
life,  to  Soledad  Villafranca  (p.  236).  That,  of  course, 
could  not  be  known  to  the  Auditor ;  but  any  one  who 
accepted  the  sincerity  of  Ferrer's  views  on  education  was 
bound  in  mere  candour  and  common  sense  to  believe  that 
he  contemplated  something  vastly  diflercnt  from  the 
primary  teaching  of  some  two  or  three  hundred,  or  even 
two  or  three  thousand,  children.     It  is  easier  to  conceive 


232   .  FRANCISCO  FERRER 

Ferrer  the  rogue  of  the  Prosecutor's  speech  than  the  fool 
of  the  Auditor's  pronouncement.  The  fact  that  no  one 
seems  to  have  observed  the  glaring  inconsistency  between 
these  two  views  is  another  proof  of  the  headlong  super- 
ficiality with  which  the  whole  case  was  conducted  by  the 
military  authorities,  and  reviewed  by  those  with  whom 
the  final  decision  lay. 

The  second  piece  of  documentary  evidence  need  not 
detain  us  long,  for  it  is  almost  certain  that  Ferrer  had 
nothing  to  do  with  it,  and  quite  certain  that  it  had  nothing 
to  do  with  the  Barcelona  Revolt.  It  was  an  old-looking 
type-written  document  in  three  parts,  purporting  to  be  an 
anarchist  proclamation  and  programme,  though  suspiciously 
like  the  work  of  an  agent  provocateur.  It  was  said  to  have 
been  found  during  the  practically  uncontrolled  search  at 
Mas  Germinal  of  August  27  to  29.^  Ferrer  declared  that 
he  had  never  set  eyes  on  it  before  ;  and  when  we  consider 
the  circumstances  of  its  alleged  discovery,  and  the  fact  that, 
at  the  Madrid  trial,  forged  documents,  or  papers  falsely 
attributed  to  him,  found  their  way  into  his  "  dossier,"  we 
can  have  no  difficulty  in  accepting  his  disavowal.  Three 
letters,  as  it  happened,  were  put  in  with  pen  and  ink — the 
t  in  the  word  actos,  and  the  ba  in  trabajando.  The  prose- 
cution got  two  experts  to  examine  these  letters,  and  they 
declared,  "  without  being  able  to  make  any  positive  affirma- 
tion," that  they  might  have  been  written  by  Ferrer.  This 
absolutely  non-committal  statement  was  perverted,  in  the 
Prosecutor's  address,  into  an  affirmation  that  the  corrections 
"  must  be  "  or  "  were  surely  "  {deben  ser)  in  Ferrer's  hand. 

•  In  his  letter  to  Heaford  of  October  5,  1909,  Ferrer  says  that  the 
Examining  Commandant  at  first  declared  that  these  papers  had  been  found 
during  the  first  search  at  Mas  Germinal,  in  the  presence  of  Mme.  Villafranca 
and  his  family,  but  that  he  afterwards  admitted  he  was  mistaken  on  this 
point. 


A   SPURIOUS   DOCUMENT  233 

To  Ferrer's  denial  of  all  knowledge  either  of  the  documents 
or  the  corrections,  the  Prosecutor  opposed  the  triumphant 
argument  that  since  he  had  neglected,  during  the  "Plenario," 
to  demand  another  examination  of  the  letters,  by  experts 
nominated  by  himself,  he  had  thus  implicitly  confessed 
their  authenticity.  To  this  there  are  several  replies.  First, 
the  "  Plenario,"  if  it  ever  occurred  at  all,  seems  to  have 
been  so  slurred  over  that  it  is  doubtful  whether  Ferrer 
realized  what  was  going  on.  Second,  there  is  nothing  to 
show  (and  it  is  highly  improbable)  that  his  right  to  claim  a 
further  examination  of  the  letters  was  ever  pointed  out  to 
him.  Third,  even  if  it  was,  he  may  very  well  have  thought 
it  incredible  that  the  Court  should  pay  any  attention  to  so 
manifest  an  absurdity  as  an  identification  of  three  letters. 
If  he  gave  any  thought  to  the  matter,  his  practical  sense 
must  have  told  him  that  it  would  be  as  impossible  for  an 
honest  expert  to  deny  as  to  affirm  that  the  letters  were  his. 
Besides,  he  could  not  foresee  that  the  Prosecutor  would 
misquote  the  report  of  the  Government's  own  experts. 
That  report,  in  its  authentic  form,  was  of  no  evidential 
value — why  should  Ferrer  be  at  the  trouble  of  attempting 
to  contradict  it? 

Whoever  may  have  written  the  circulars,  Dr.  Simarro 
has  shown  conclusively  that  they  date  from  the  first  two 
years  of  the  century,  and  can  have  nothing  to  do  with  the 
events  of  July,  1909.  It  is  not  denied  that  all  three  papers 
proceed  from  the  same  source  and  are  apparently  of  about 
the  same  date.  Therefore,  when  we  find  in  them  an  explicit 
attack  upon  a  "so-called  Union"  which  was  demanding  a 
reduction  of  ;{^4,ooo,ooo  in  the  budget,  and  when  we  know 
that  this  Union  was  formed  in  1900  and  dissolved  in  1902, 
we  can  readily  understand  that  the  document,  as  Ferrer 
put  it,  "avait  I'air  tr6s  vieillottc."    Moreover,  when  we  find 


234  FRANCISCO   FERRER 

the  writer  saying,  "  Pay  no  attention  to  those  who  tell  you 
that  this  programme  is  the  work  of  the  Government,  of 
the  police,  or  of  the  enemies  of  the  proletariat,"  we  cannot 
but  feel  that  this  proletarian  doth  protest  too  much,  and 
has  all  the  appearance  of  a  police  spy. 

This  interesting  group  of  documents  was  published  in 
La  Vangiiardia  of  Barcelona  on  September  ii,  "with  a 
view  to  protesting  against  the  attitude  of  a  certain  portion 
of  the  foreign  press  "  in  regard  to  Ferrer.  Of  course  it  at 
once  went  the  round  of  the  papers,  and  still  figures  in  the 
forefront  of  all  orthodox  accounts  of  the  case. 


XXI 

VERDICT  AND  EXECUTION 

The  result  is  known  to  all  the  world.  On  Saturday  the 
9th  the  Council  of  War,  having  in  a  single  morning  heard 
all  the  evidence  and  pleadings  in  the  complex  cause, 
devoted  the  afternoon  to  hearing,  in  secret  session,  the 
Assessor's  indictment,  and  then,  in  secret,  passed  sentence 
of  death.  The  next  step  was  for  the  Auditor  to  write  his 
report  upon  the  sentence  before  sending  it  up  to  the 
Captain-General ;  and  the  Captain-General  had  to  send 
it,  fortified  with  his  approval,  to  the  Government  in  Madrid. 
Spain  is  sometimes  thought  to  be  a  country  of  dilatory 
habit ;  but  here  the  promptitude  of  all  concerned  was 
nothing  less  than  miraculous.  The  Auditor  wrote  this 
*'  dictamen  "  of  7500  words  in  a  single  day,  Sunday  the  loth 
— a  very  remarkable  feat  ;  ^  and  in  two  more  days  the 
Captain-General  and  the  Government  had  satisfied  their 
consciences  of  the  justice  of  the  sentence.'^ 

'  In  fact,  quite  incredible.  I  do  not  think  we  can  resist  the  conclusion 
that  the  Auditor  anticipated  the  sentence,  and  had  the  greater  part  of  his 
"dictamen  "  prepared  in  advance. 

-  La  Mafiana  of  January  25,  1910,  published  two  letters  said  to  ha%*e 
passed  between  Sr.  Maura  and  Sr.  Morct,  the  leader  of  the  Liberal  opposi- 
tion. As  their  authenticity  does  not  seem  to  be  established,  I  relegate 
them  to  a  foot-note.  Uut,  if  forgeries,  they  are  certainly  very  plausible, 
Sr.  Maura's  letter  runs  thus  :  "The  Council  of  War  in  Barcelona  has  passed 
sentence  of  death  upon  Ferrer.  The  sentence  was  unanimous,  and  has  been 
approved  by  the  Supreme  Council  of  War  and  Marine,  which  finds  no  fault 


236  FRANCISCO   FERRER 

About  three  in  the  morning  of  Monday  the  i  ith,  Ferrer 
was  removed  from  the  prison  to  Montjuich  :  a  step  which 
showed  that  his  fate  was  already  sealed.  On  Tuesday 
evening  a  cabinet  council  was  held  in  Madrid,  ending  at 
about  half  past  eight ;  and,  almost  at  the  same  hour, 
Ferrer  was  taken  to  the  office  of  the  governor  of  the 
fortress,  where  the  Examining  Commandant,  Valerio  Raso, 
read  to  him  the  sentence  of  death.  He  received  it  with 
perfect  calm,  and  signed  the  paper — like  the  receipt  for  a 
registered  letter — with  a  firm  hand. 

If  ever  man  showed  his  ruling  passion  strong  in  death 
it  was  Francisco  Ferrer.  Though  he  cannot  have  doubted 
that  his  transference  to  Montjuich  was  ominous,  he  was  no 
sooner  installed  there  then  he  set  himself  to  write  what 
proved  to  be  his  last  thoughts  on  his  one  absorbing 
theme,  in  a  paper  headed — 

Education  :  For  Soledad. 
It  is  dated  October  1 1,  and  opens  thus — 
The  man  was  right  who,  being  asked  at  what  age  the 

either  with  the  legaHty  of  the  procedure  or  the  penalty  imposed.  Neverthe- 
less, and  particularly  through  our  Ambassadors  in  Rome  and  Paris,  the 
Government  is  aware  that  the  sentence  will  provoke  much  censure  and  give 
rise  to  great  protests.  The  Government  also  know  that  the  Anarchists  who 
sympathize  with  Ferrer  will  promptly  make  tremendous  reprisals.  The  Home 
Secretary  and  myself  have  received  an  endless  number  of  anonymous  threats, 
which  are  also  confirmed  by  the  police.  If  these  threats  only  related  to  my 
person  I  should  take  no  notice  of  them,  as  I  am  ready  to  face  every  danger, 
and  even  death,  rather  than  fail  to  carry  out  the  high  duties  and  responsibili- 
ties of  my  office.  But  these  threats,  as  is  confirmed  by  the  confidential 
information  from  the  police,  affect  one  who  is  superior  to  all.  His  Holiness 
Pius  X.  has  telegraphed  to  the  King  imploring  mercy  for  the  criminal.  His 
Majesty  seems  inclined  to  grant  it.  The  Government  is  unanimous  in  its 
opinion,  but  thinking  of  the  King,  I  do  not  wish  to  face  all  the  consequences 
of  the  execution  without  taking  your  opinion."  Sr.  Moret  is  represented  as 
having  answered  :  "I  think  you  must  not  recommend  the  King  to  exercise 
the  Royal  prerogative.  The  Government  must  order  the  sentence  to  be 
carried  out.  To  act  otherwise  would  be  a  surrender  of  all  the  attributes  of 
virility." 


THE   LAST   DAY  237 

education  of  a  child  should  begin,  replied  "  From  the 
moment  of  the  birth  of  his  grandfather."  He  did  not 
even  exaggerate  ;  for  we  carry  with  us  from  our  birth  so 
many  atavistic  faults  and  prejudices,  that,  if  we  want  to 
trace  them  to  their  origin,  we  should  have  to  go  much 
further  back  than  two  generations. 

This  consideration  ought  not,  however,  to  influence 
education  any  further  than  in  impressing  upon  us  the 
importance  of  a  very  great  patience,  seeing  how  gradual 
is  every  modification  in  the  moral  state  whether  of  masses 
or  of  individuals.  .  .  .  Let  us  not  forget,  as  we  make  a 
beginning  in  modern  education,  that  its  results  can  only 
be  relative  in  the  first  generation,  but  that,  as  it  is  con- 
tinued from  generation  to  generation,  a  day  will  come 
when  parents  and  teachers  find  the  soil  well  tilled  from 
the  outset,  as  the  children  will  have  begun  to  be  educated 
from  the  birth  of  their  grandparents. 

[He  goes  on  to  insist  on  the  fundamental  importance  of 
two  things  :  physical  hygiene  and  the  relations  of  children 
with  their  comrades.] 

The  physical  hygiene  which  we  recommend  is  that 
which  is  urged  on  us  by  the  greatest  hygienists  and 
sanctioned  by  experience.  It  ought  to  begin  with  daily 
baths.     Unfortunately  .  .  . 

Here,  it  would  seem,  he  was  interrupted  on  the  nth  ; 
and  next  day  he  winds  up — 

"  I  cannot  continue,  they  are  taking  my  life.  F.  F." 
Probably  this  was  added  after  he  had  written  the 
following  letter — his  last — also  addressed  to  Solcdad 
Viliafranca.  I  omit  a  couple  of  paragraphs  which  arc 
unimportant,  and  one  or  two  phrases  too  intimate  for  cold 
print — 


238  FRANCISCO   FERRER 


Fortress  of  Montjuich, 

Barcelona.     12/ 10/ 1909. 


My  impressions  of  this  new  abode  are  excellent.  The 
Governor-General  has  been  very  amiable,  and  has  installed 
me  in  the  best  cell  in  the  fortress.  The  officers  and  the 
soldiers  themselves  are  polite  and  full  of  attentions  for  me. 
That  is  why  I  am  much  better  off  here  than  at  the 
Celular. 

I  have  a  clean  and  fresh  room  with  so  much  sun  and 
air  that,  if  only  you  were  here,  I  should  want  nothing 
more. 

But,  you  may  say,  do  you  never  think  of  the  death 
which  the  Prosecutor  demanded  for  you,  and  which  your 
enemies  desire  ?  Not  at  all,  my  wife,  not  at  all.  Who 
could  think  of  death  in  so  much,  and  so  brilliant,  sunshine  ? 
Blessed  be  the  sun  that  is  the  light  of  my  chamber,  and 
you  too,  Sol,  who  light  up  my  soul  and  my  conscience, 
for  the  love  of  the  truth  and  the  desire  of  good  with  which 
it  is  filled  !  No,  I  have  no  time  to  think  of  death  ;  I  will 
think  only  of  life,  of  the  life  which  we  shall  live  anew  when 
I  have  obtained  justice  ;  for  one  day  justice  will  be  done 
me.  I  will  think  only  of  Mongat,  of  the  books  of  the 
Escuela,  of  the  new  scope  that  will  be  given  to  the  cause 
of  rational  education,  and  of  the  immense  happiness  that 
will  fill  our  life. 

«  *  *  *  * 

Do  not  suffer,  my  life,  or  let  your  companions  in  exile 
suffer,  in  thinking  me  ill  or  unhappy. 

Never  was  a  prisoner  defended  as  I  was.^  For  my 
Defender  pleaded  not  only  my  cause,  but  also  that  of  our 
dear  Escuela  Moderna  and  our  educational  work,  with 
such  ardour  and  passion  that  I  assure  you,  my  Sol,  that 
I  could  die  contented,  sure  that  my  work,  which  is  my 

*  It  is  not  true  that  Captain  Galceran  was  arrested  or  suffered  any  pro- 
fessional detriment  by  reason  of  his  defence  of  Ferrer ;  but  there  is  good 
reason  to  believe  that  his  arrest  was  at  one  time  contemplated. 


1 


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THE   LAST   NIGHT  239 

life,  will  not  die.     And  so  long  as  my  work   lives,  what 
does  my  death  matter  ? 

Tell  me,  did  you  read  the  defence  published  in  Las 
Noticias  which  I  sent  you  ?  Did  it  make  you  weep  ?  Did 
they  weep,  the  others,  in  reading  it?  For  my  part, 
yesterday,  when  I  saw  my  Defender,  I  told  him  how  great 
had  been  my  emotion  in  read  .  .  .  Here,  my  beloved,  the 
arrival  of  the  Commandant,  Valerio  Raso,  interrupts  me. 
He  comes  to  tell  me  that  I  am  to  be  placed  en  Capilla^ 
and  ...  In  my  letter  of  yesterday  I  already  bade  you 
farewell.      Te  amo  y  anio  a  cuantos  me  aniaran. 

F.  Ferrer. 

I  shall  attempt  no  comment  on  this  letter.  The 
reader  may  believe  if  be  can  that  it  is  the  work  of  a 
hypocrite  wearing  his  mask  even  in  his  last  words  to  the 
woman  he  loved. 

The  sentence  having  been  read  to  him,  he  was  con- 
ducted en  Capilla,  into  a  (apparently  improvised)  mortuary 
chapel.  Over  the  altar  was  an  image  of  the  Virgin  sur- 
rounded by  tapers.  He  asked  that  it  might  be  removed, 
but  the  request  could  not  be  granted.  All  night  he  was 
surrounded  by  priests  of  various  orders,  pressing  upon  him 
their  ministrations.  These  he  declined  firmly  but  without 
asperity,  and  passed  the  greater  part  of  the  night  walking 
up  and  down  the  chapel  and  dictating  to  a  notary  a  long 
and  highly  detailed  will. 

He  began  by  protesting  his  "  total  innocence "  and 
"  affirming  that  ere  long  it  would  be  publicly  recognized." 
Then  he  deprecated,  at  any  time  whatsoever,  any  religious 
or  political  manifestations  or  observances  over  his  remains. 
"  I  desire,"  he  said,  "  that  my  friends  shall  speak  little  of 
me,  or  not  at  all  ;  since  in  eulogizing  men  we  create  a 
sort  of  idol,  which  is  a  practice  hurtful  to  the  future  of 


240  FRANCISCO   FERRER 

humanity,"  He  appointed  as  his  executors  Crist6bal 
Litran  and  William  Heaford.  To  each  of  his  three 
daughters  he  bequeathed  the  sum  of  6000  pesetas  (;^24o) 
to  which  they  were  entitled  by  the  law ;  but  he  enjoined 
them  to  waive  their  claims  to  this  money,  as  he  regarded 
his  property  as  a  trust  conferred  upon  him  by  Mile. 
Meunier  for  the  propagation  of  his  ideas.  To  Soledad 
Villafranca  he  bequeathed  100  shares  in  the  Fomento  de 
Obras  y  Construcciones,  and  the  furniture  and  appurte- 
nances of  their  rooms  at  Mas  Germinal.  His  (heavily 
mortgaged)  house  in  Paris,  his  publishing-house  and  stock 
in  Barcelona,  600  shares  in  the  Fomento  de  Obras  y 
Construcciones,  and  432  shares  in  the  Sociedad  Catalana 
de  Credito,  he  bequeathed  to  his  friend  Lorenzo  Portet 
of  Liverpool,  in  trust  to  carry  on,  in  various  ways,  his 
educational  and  propagandist  work,  specifying,  among 
other  things,  that  translations  should  be  published  of  the 
English  books  issued  by  the  Moral  Education  League, 
with  which  (as  we  have  seen)  he  was  occupied  during  the 
days  before  his  arrest.  Portet  was  further  enjoined,  if  any 
of  Ferrer's  family  (including  his  son  Riego)  should  fall 
into  want,  to  succour  them  out  of  the  funds  thus  devised 
to  him.  For  the  rest,  his  brother  Jose  was  appointed 
residuary  legatee,  and  failing  him,  his  wife  Maria 
Fontcuberta. 

The  dictation  of  this  will  occupied  about  seven  hours. 
It  was  nearly  six  in  the  morning  before  it  was  finished. 
All  the  time,  the  clergy  hovered  round,  offering,  it  is  said, 
not  only  spiritual  but  physical  ministrations,  in  the  shape 
of  wine,  coffee,  tobacco  ;  but  even  these  Ferrer  declined, 
saying  that  he  had  supped  well  before  entering  the  chapel. 
At  a  very  early  hour,  probably  about  seven.  Captain 
Galceran  arrived  at  the  fortress  and  remained  with  Ferrer 


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"AIM   WELL,   MY  SONS!"         241 

to  the  end.  At  half-past  eight  a  squadron  of  cavalry 
formed  a  square  in  the  trench  of  the  Santa  Eulalia  bastion  ; 
and  at  a  quarter  to  nine  Ferrer  was  summoned  to  the 
closing  scene.  His  worst  enemies  admit  that  he  faced 
death  with  serene  courage.  The  morning  was  grey  and 
chill.  He  saluted  "  without  affectation  "  those  whom  he 
passed  on  the  way  to  the  place  of  execution.  Arrived  on 
the  spot,  he  asked  to  be  allowed  to  stand,  instead  of 
kneeling,  and  to  have  his  eyes  unbandaged.  After  some 
consultation,  the  first  part  of  his  request  was  granted,  but 
the  second  was  refused,  on  the  ground  that  "  traitors  are 
not  permitted  to  see  their  executioners."  On  facing  the 
firing  party,  he  cried,  "Aim  well,  my  sons !    It  is  not  your 

fault.    I  am  innocent.    Long  live  the  Escuela "   Three 

bullets  in  the  brain  cut  short  the  phrase. 

The  request  of  his  family  that  his  body  might  be 
handed  over  to  them  was  refused  ;  but  by  especial  favour, 
his  mother  and  nephew  were  permitted  to  see  his  horribly 
disfigured  remains  before  they  were  consigned  to  the  foso 
comiin  of  the  new  cemetery,  on  the  southward  flank  of 
Montjuich.  There  they  lie,  in  a  bare  red  gravel-pit  hewn 
out  of  the  hill-side,  and  crowded  with  graves,  most  of  them 
marked  by  a  triangle,  but  a  few  by  a  cross.  The  triangle 
denotes  a  freethinker,  the  cross  a  spiritualist. 

When  the  Cortes  met,  two  days  later,  the  Ministry 
could  point,  not  only  to  a  cliose  jngtfe,  but  to  difait  accompli. 


XXII 

THE   CASE  SUMMED  UP 

Excepting  some  of  the  villagers  and  one  or  two 
subordinate  poHcemen,^  I  doubt  whether  any  one  con- 
cerned in  the  affair  acted  in  deliberate  and  conscious  bad 
faith.  It  is  quite  unnecessary  to  suppose  so.  We  have 
all  the  materials  for  a  judicial  crime,  in  a  law  carefully 
designed  to  give  the  accused  no  chance,  administered 
by  a  band  of  puzzle-headed  and  prejudiced  soldiers. 
Lawyers'  law  is  not  always  synonymous  with  justice, 
but  it  is  always  preferable  to  soldiers'  law.  I  have  given 
sufficient  specimens  of  the  sort  of  evidence  gravely  pro- 
pounded to  and  accepted  by  the  Council  of  War ;  but  if 
the  reader  wishes  fully  to  realize  the  solemn  absurdity  of 
the  whole  proceedings,  he  must  carefully  study  the 
"dictamina"  of  the  Prosecutor,  Assessor,  and  Auditor, 
translated,  practically  in  full,  in  the  Appendix. 

I  reject,  then,  the  theory  of  any  criminal  conspiracy 
against  Ferrer.  Malignant  stupidity,  coupled  with  the 
absence  of  the  most  rudimentary  sense  of  fair  play,  is 
sufficient  to  account  for  all  that  occurred.  But  certainly 
it  has  a  good  deal  to  account  for :  the  arbitrary  banish- 

*  Ferrer  accused  the  police  of  having  attempted  to  suborn  his  farm- 
servant  to  give  evidence  against  him.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  they  tried  to  bribe 
the  man  to  betray  his  master's  hiding-place — a  legitimate  proceeding,  from 
their  point  of  view.  On  the  other  hand,  I  think  there  is  little  doubt  that  they 
"  found  "  the  type- written  document — v/here  they  had  placed  it. 


SINISTER   CIRCUMSTANCES       243 

ment  of  all  Ferrer's  friends  ;  the  studied  neglect  to  call 
for  their  evidence  ;  the  pettifogging  refusal  of  that  evidence 
when  offered  ;  the  wantonly  harsh  treatment  of  the  untried 
prisoner ;  the  abstraction  of  his  clothes  and  personal 
property ;  the  publication  (in  papers  under  strict  censor- 
ship) of  compromising  documents  which,  whether  genuine 
or  not,  should  never  have  left  the  secret  portfolio  of  the 
Examining  Commandant  ;  the  rewards  ostentatiously 
showered  on  the  heroes  who  had  arrested  an  unarmed 
and  unresisting  man  ;  the  violent  haste  with  which,  from 
the  moment  the  "  incommunication "  was  relaxed  and 
the  Defender  chosen,  the  whole  complex  case  was  rushed 
to  its  conclusion ;  the  eager  acceptance  of  every  second- 
hand whisper  to  the  detriment  of  the  accused,  and  the 
rejection  of  every  favourable  testimony  to  character  ;  the 
neglect  of  even  the  scanty  opportunities  provided  by  the 
law  for  the  public  examination  of  witnesses  ;  the  spiriting 
away  of  one  important  witness,  and  the  release  without 
trial  of  others — all  this  would  give  the  case  a  dark  and 
sinister  complexion,  even  if  the  evidence  were  ten  times 
stronger  than  it  is.  But  this  is  not  villainy,  not  Jesuitism  ; 
it  is  plain,  downright  stupidity.  Having  an  iniquitous 
law  ready-made  to  their  hands,  his  enemies  could  have 
shot  Ferrer  quite  as  comfortably  if  they  had  observed  the 
law  in  every  detail,  had  treated  him  with  scrupulous  con- 
sideration, and  had  left  his  captors  unrewarded,  at  any 
rate  until  after  his  conviction. 

The  haste  alone  was  necessary,  lest,  when  the  Cortes 
met,  awkward  questions  should  be  asked.  But  the  haste 
was  the  greatest  stupidity  of  all,  for  it  meant  the  suicide  of 
the  Ministry.  The  Cortes  assembled  on  October  15. 
Three  days  later  the  Liberal  leader,  Sr.  Moret,  delivered  a 
vehement  attack  on  the  Government  of  Sr.  Maura ;  and 


2U  FRANCISCO  FERRER 

though  Maura  and  La  Cierva,  the  Minister  of  the  Interior, 
made  a  fierce  fight,  three  more  days  sufficed  to  drive  them 
from  office.  They  resigned  on  October  21,  just  eight 
days  after  the  death  of  Ferrer.  It  is  true  that  the  Liberal 
attack  was  based  on  their  general  mismanagement,  the 
alternate  impotence  and  violence  of  their  conduct,  rather 
than  on  the  Ferrer  case  in  particular.  Sr.  Moret,  when 
challenged  to  say  whether  he  himself  would  have  par- 
doned Ferrer,  made  no  answer ;  and  if  the  letter  quoted 
on  p.  236  is  genuine,  we  have  no  difficulty  in  understanding 
his  silence.  But  whatever  may  have  been  the  attitude 
of  the  official  Liberals  towards  Ferrer,  and  whether  that 
attitude  was  straightforward  or  not,  there  is  not  the  least 
doubt  that  the  execration  of  Europe,  with  which  in  those 
days  the  air  was  ringing,  was  the  main  factor  in  Maura's 
fall.  The  Government  were  forced  to  admit  Moret's  con- 
tention that  "  their  unpopularity  at  home  and  abroad  was 
a  danger  to  the  country." 

I  am  not  at  all  sure  that,  had  Ferrer  been  fairly  tried 
under  reasonable  rules  of  evidence,  he  would  have  got  off 
scot-free.  He  was  certainly  not  the  "  author  and  chief  of 
the  rebellion";  that  accusation  was  a  monstrous  absurdity; 
but  it  is  not  quite  clear  that  his  irrepressible  sympathy 
with  every  form  of  revolt  may  not  have  betrayed  him  into 
one  or  two  indiscretions.  What  is  perfectly  clear  is  that 
it  was  not  the  crumbs  of  good  evidence  against  him  that 
led  to  his  condemnation,  but  the  mountain  of  bad  evi- 
dence, to  most  of  which  a  rational  court  of  law  would  have 
refused  to  listen  for  a  moment.  The  ultimate  truth,  when 
we  get  to  the  roots  of  things,  is  that  he  fell  a  victim  to  a 
simple  equivocation — a  play  upon  words.  His  accusers, 
his  judges,  all  the  witnesses  against  him,  from  the  villagers 
of  Premia  up  to  the  Prosecutor  of  the  Supreme  Court 


A  DEADLY   EQUIVOCATION      245 

(whose  opinion,  siempre  valiosisima,  was  practically 
accepted  as  evidence),  were  profoundly  convinced  that  he 
was  morally  responsible  for  the  revolt — that  he  was, 
through  his  opinions  and  teachings,  the  moral  "  author 
and  chief"  of  the  "Revolution."  But  the  law  had  unfor- 
tunately omitted  to  make  such  "moral"  authorship  a 
capital  crime,  so  it  was  necessary  to  allege  efficient  and 
actual  authorship  as  well.  Constantly  and  quite  plainly, 
we  see  the  minds  of  witnesses  and  advocates  shifting  from 
the  one  ground  to  the  other,  and  back  again.  The  most 
flagrant  instance,  perhaps,  occurs  in  the  "dictamen"  of 
the  Auditor  {Process,  p.  312);  but  the  insidious  fallacy  is 
traceable  at  many  other  points  in  the  official  documents, 
to  say  nothing  of  the  writings  of  conservative  and  clerical 
apologists  for  the  sentence.  Many  of  these,  indeed,  prac- 
tically abandon  any  other  plea  than  that  of  "  moral  " 
responsibility. 

Is  the  plea  just  in  itself?  In  law  it  cannot  be  good, 
not  even  in  Spanish  law.  But  is  it  defensible  on  grounds, 
so  to  speak,  of  equity  ?  I  have  already  discussed  this 
point,  and  shown  the  absurdity  of  supposing  that  Ferrer's 
educational  work  could  possibly  count  for  more  than  a 
drop  in  the  bucket  of  popular  anti-clericalism.  I  do  not 
think  that  any  one  who  sincerely  examines  the  situation 
can  doubt  that  the  revolutionary  temper  of  Barcelona 
would  in  all  probability  have  been  very  much  the  same  if 
Ferrer  had  never  been  born,  or  had  never  established  the 
Escuela  Moderna.  Partly  sincerely,  and  partly  out  of 
malice,  his  enemies  enormously  exaggerated  his  influence 
outside  his  own  little  school.  We  hear  of  his  "endowing" 
the  other  laic  schools  of  Barcelona  and  Catalonia,  which  is 
the  merest  nonsense.  He  had  barely  money  enough  for 
his  own  particular  enterprise.     The  "milhons"  which  he 


246  FRANCISCO   FERRER 

devoted  to  subsidizing  other  schools  existed  only  in  the 
clerical  imagination.  At  most  he  supplied  some  of  them 
with  books  on  credit,  and  was  not  very  strict  in  exacting 
payment.  That  his  energetic  example  gave  a  certain 
impetus  to  the  movement  for  Republican  and  rationalist 
education  is,  of  course,  true ;  but  the  movement  existed 
before  he  came  on  the  scene,  and  would  doubtless  have 
continued,  more  or  less  vigorously,  even  if  Mile.  Meunier 
had  left  all  her  money  to  the  Church  which  was  so  sadly 
disappointed  of  it.  The  chances  are,  no  doubt,  that  some 
ex-pupils  of  the  Escuela  Moderna,  or  of  similar  institu- 
tions, joined  the  rioters ;  but  I  am  not  aware  that  the  fact 
has  been  proved  in  any  single  instance ;  and  it  has  cer- 
tainly not  been  proved  in  sufficient  instances  to  show  that 
the  educational  movement  appreciably  contributed  to  the 
excesses  of  the  mob.  At  all  events,  no  atom  of  proof  to 
this  effect  was  before  the  Council  of  War.  The  Auditor, 
in  his  "dictamen,"  speaking  of  the  disturbances  in  the 
smaller  towns  of  Catalonia,  said  that  "the  names  of  the 
chiefs  and  principal  instigators  of  seditious  acts  correspond 
with  those  of  teachers  placed  by  Ferrer  in  particular 
schools,  or  of  chiefs  of  anarchist  centres  which  depended 
on  the  accused."  A  wilder  assertion  can  seldom  have 
been  made  in  any  document  put  forward  by  a  responsible 
official  as  part  of  a  serious  legal  process.  No  proof  is 
alleged,  and  assuredly  no  proof  existed,  (i)  that  the 
teachers  had  been  appointed  by  Ferrer,  (2)  that  Ferrer 
had  anything  to  do  with  the  anarchist  centres,  (3)  that 
the  coincidence  of  names  meant  identity  of  persons.  To 
any  one  who  knows  how  excessively  common  Spanish 
surnames  are  apt  to  be,  the  last  assumption  must  seem 
almost  impudently  absurd. 

The  exact  influence  of  the  Escuela  Moderna  it  is  of 


PROPAGANDIST   EDUCATION     247 

course  impossible  to  measure ;  but  even  if  I  somewhat 
underestimate  the  diffusive  power  of  Ferrer's  teaching,  it 
remains  grotesquely  disproportionate  to  single  it  out  as 
the  mainspring  of  the  revolt. 

There  is  nothing  to  show  that  Ferrer  had  a  genius 
for  education  in  any  large  and  liberal  sense  of  the  term. 
He  conceived  it  simply  as  an  instrument  of  propaganda, 
a  weapon  of  social  and  economic  enfranchisement.  Like 
every  one  who  is  firmly  possessed  by  a  dogmatic  creed, 
he  was  eager  to  catch  the  young  idea  as  it  sprouted,  and 
train  it  according  to  his  preconceptions.  He  knew  that 
"just  as  the  twig  is  bent  the  tree's  inclined";  and  he 
had  no  idea  of  letting  the  tree  grow  freely,  to  be  blown 
upon  by  all  the  winds  of  the  spirit.  A  world  in  which 
there  should  be  no  teaching  but  that  of  the  Escuela 
Moderna,  would  be  a  strange,  stunted,  lop-sided  affair. 
It  would,  in  fact,  be  the  world  of  an  uneducated  man, 
fascinated  by  the  grandiose  generalizations  of  a  particular 
phase  of  scientific  thought — a  phase  which  is  wavering 
and  changing  before  our  very  eyes.  But  though  Ferrer 
undoubtedly  attributed  to  his  educational  principles  a 
world-wide  validity,  and  would  not  in  the  least  have 
shrunk  from  taking  office  (had  it  been  offered  him)  as 
Minister  of  Education  for  the  Republic  of  Mankind,  it 
is  not  fair  to  make  his  deficient  sense  of  proportion  a 
reason  for  applying  to  his  work  the  standard  of  universal 
validity.  The  question  is  not  whether  all  schools  should 
be  Escuelas  Modcrnas,  but  whether  the  Escuela  Moderna 
was  a  good  school  as  compared  with  others  of  its  grade 
in  Barcelona  and  in  Spain.  To  this  question  there  can 
be  but  one  answer  from  all  who  bch'cvc  in,  or  care  for, 
education  as  a  means  of  enlightenment.  The  light  whicli 
spread  from   the  Callc   dc   Bailcn    might   be   harsh   and 


248  FRANCISCO   FERRER 

untempered,  but  it  was  light  and  not  darkness.  It  lit  up 
only  one  side  of  things,  and  it  threw  unnecessarily  harsh 
shadows ;  but  it  was  clear  and  honest  so  far  as  it  went, 
and  was  therefore  hated  by  the  powers  which  flourish 
only  in  and  through  the  exclusion  and  negation  of  light. 
Ferrer's  thought  was  crude,  and  his  methods,  though  they 
sincerely  aimed  at  modernity,  seem  to  have  achieved  it 
only  with  large  reservations.  The  way  to  combat  his 
influence,  such  as  it  was,  would  have  been  to  make  the 
official  schools  hygienic  and  efficient ;  or  if  that  was 
impossible,  then  to  start  new  schools  which  should  com- 
pete with  his  in  modernity  of  method,  while  demonstrating 
the  virtues,  instead  of  the  vices,  of  monarchism,  cleri- 
calism, militarism,  and  capitalism.  After  all,  there  were 
thousands  of  individuals  in  Barcelona — to  say  nothing 
of  the  religious  orders — who  were  far  richer  than  Ferrer. 
If  he,  with  his  one  poor  "immeuble"  in  the  Rue  des 
Petites  Ecuries,  could  set  up  such  a  panic  in  the  hosts 
of  orthodoxy,  what  might  not  these  hosts,  with  all  their 
resources,  have  done  to  counter  his  movement  in  fair 
fight,  on  the  educational  territory  which  they  claimed  as 
their  own !  Quite  amazing  is  the  poverty  of  resource 
which  can  combat  such  thought  and  such  methods  as 
Ferrer's  only  with  the  gag  and  the  garotte. 

As  to  Ferrer's  character,  not  much  remains  to  be  said. 
I  have  done  my  best  to  place  the  reader  in  a  position  to 
form  his  own  judgment.  Fragmentary  though  they  be, 
the  utterances  which  I  have  quoted  form  a  pretty  complete 
self-revelation.  From  first  to  last,  we  see  in  him  an 
ardent,  uncompromising,  incorruptible  idealist.  His  ideals 
are  narrow,  and  his  devotion  to  them  is  fanatical ;  but  it 
is  devoid,  if  not  of  egoism,  at  any  rate  of  self-interest  and 
self-seeking.     It  is  these  vices,  combined  with  cowardice, 


THE   ARDENT   IDEALIST  249 

in  the  political  associates  of  his  early  days,  that  alienate 
him  from  political  and  revolutionary  agitation.  If  the 
1892  manifesto  be  all  genuine,  we  see  that  he  was  at  that 
time  prepared  to  lead  a  forlorn  hope  against  oppression 
and  exploitation,  and  to  baptize  liberty  in  a  torrent  of 
blood.  Perhaps  it  was  the  scant  response  elicited  by  his 
scheme  of  mad  self-immolation  that  began,  or  hastened,  his 
disillusionment.  His  manifesto,  indeed,  was  never  issued  ; 
but  that  was  probably  because  he  discreetly  felt  the  pulse 
of  the  men  he  had  in  view,  and  found  that  it  did  not  throb 
with  exultation  at  the  thought  of  dying  like  "  sons  of  the 
Cid  "  in  such  a  hare-brained  attempt.  At  all  events,  like 
most  of  the  great  idealists  of  the  past  century,  he  came  to 
feel  that  the  first  and  fundamental  revolution,  without 
which  all  others  must  be  futile,  was  a  revolution  in  the 
spirit  of  man.  As  the  particular  section  of  mankind  from 
which  he  sprang,  and  which  he  was  best  fitted  to  influence, 
happened  to  be  either  illiterate  or  educated  solely  in 
obscurantism,  he  naturally  bent  his  mind  to  amending  that 
primary  condition.  Being  himself,  moreover,  ill-educated, 
he  found  disproportionate  comfort  and  assurance  in  a 
particular  set  of  scientific  doctrines  which  he  accepted  as 
the  last  word  of  sublunary  wisdom.  When  these  doctrines 
should  be  brought  home  in  their  purity  to  the  human 
mind,  he  nothing  doubted  that  the  millennium  would  be 
upon  us  ;  consequently  he  set  himself  with  whole-hearted 
and  unquestioning  ardour  to  the  promulgation  of  the  faith 
that  was  in  him.  Like  all  ardent  proselytizcrs,  he  had 
little  sense  of  humour,  though  enough  to  smile,  now  and 
then,  at  his  own  incompressibility.  Very  characteristic  is 
the  picture  he  draws  of  himself  sitting,  bound  with  galling 
cords,  at  the  town  house  of  Alclla,  and  calmly  endeavour- 
ing, all  the  night  through,  to  sow  the  good  seed  among 


250  FRANCISCO   FERRER 

his  captors  of  the  soinatefi.     It  is  curious  how,  in  a  Catholic 
country,  we  find  this  Puritan  of  free  thought  acting  very 
much  as  did  the  Puritans  of  Protestantism  at  the  Refor- 
mation, and  as  some  of  them  would  like  to  do  to-day — 
covering  his  head  in  the  presence  of  the  Host,  converting 
a  carven   cross  into  a  mere   bar,  deprecating  the   mute 
presence  of  the  Virgin  during  the  last  vigil  of  his  life. 
And  while  there  is  in  these  traits  an  ostentation  of  protest, 
we  cannot  but  see  in  some  others  a  pedantic  self-suppres- 
sion.    For  instance,  he  will  not  sign  his  name  upon  the 
menu  of  a  dinner,  because  the  treasuring  of  a  signature 
is  a  form  of  idolatry ;  but  he  will  write  moral  maxims 
instead,  such  as  "  L'union  fait  la  force."     A  similar  trait 
is  the  prohibition  in  his  will  of  harmless  and  inevitable 
hero-worship — it  shows   a   passion  for  trimming   human 
nature  down  to  the  strict  requirements  of  a   somewhat 
niggardly  rationalism.     But  in  all  this  he  was  absolutely 
and  limpidly  sincere.     It  was  the   pedantic  excess  of  a 
very   real    quality — the    complete    impersonality   of   his 
ardour.     As  he  shrank  from  applying  the  money  entrusted 
him  to  ends  of  personal  luxury,  so  also  he  shrank  from 
making  his  ideas  and  convictions  subserve  any  personal 
ambition  or  vanity.     So  far  as  his  name  formed  a  rallying- 
point  for  his  co-religionaries  (as  they  may  quite  accurately 
be  called)  he  was  willing  that  it  should  be  used  to  that 
end  ;  but  he  was  wholly  innocent  of  any  pontifical  preten- 
sions.    He  was  the  most  genuinely  unambitious  of  men  ; 
and  there  is  nothing  baser  or  stupider  in  the  pronounce- 
ments of  his  accusers  than  their  attempt  to  wrest  his  wish 
to  remain  "in  the  shade"  into  a  cowardly  endeavour  to 
lurk  unseen,  while  sending  others  forth  to  commit  crime 
and   incur  danger.     To   make  Ferrer   a  coward   was   to 
exceed  the  limits  of  permissible  density. 


PASSIONS    AND   AFFECTIONS      251 

On  his  relations  with  the  three  women  who  succes- 
sively entered  into  his  life,  the  reader  must  pass  judgment 
for  himself.  Perhaps  his  wiser  course  will  be  rather  to 
suspend  judgment,  unless  he  deems  himself  able  to  read 
the  secrets  of  a  dead  heart  and  of  three  living  ones.  Two 
of  the  three  women  I  know,  slightly  indeed,  but  suffi- 
ciently to  respect  them,  and  to  feel  that  their  characters 
shed  no  unfavourable  ilight  upon  the  character  of  the  man 
whose  life  they  shared.  The  legend  of  Ferrer's  parental 
heartlessness,  is,  I  hope,  finally  disposed  of  in  the  fore- 
going pages,  for  all  persons  who  are  accessible  to  evidence. 
This  book  would  be  considerably  longer  had  I  gathered 
up  all  the  proofs  that  he  was  a  man  of  warm  family 
feeling.  I  shall  never  forget  the  simple  earnestness  with 
which  Jose  Ferrer  said  "  No  two  brothers  live  like  he  and 
me."  So  far  as  anything  is  certain  in  this  world  of 
accidents,  it  is  certain  that  Ferrer  would  be  alive  to-day 
had  he  not  responded  instantly,  and  at  no  slight  personal 
inconvenience,  to  a  call  ,of  family  affection.  Nor  was  his 
enthusiasm  for  humanity  of  that  order  which  chills  at 
the  contact  with  individual  fellow-men,  beyond  the  family 
circle.  His  inveterate  habit  of  conversational  proselytism 
could  scarcely  have  been  contracted  without  a  certain  power 
of  getting  into  human  relations  with  strangers.  Of  the 
personal  attachment  with  which  his  friends  regarded  him, 
I  have  had  numerous  and  convincing  proofs.  One  little 
trait  will  show  the  kindliness  of  his  disposition.  His  friend 
William  Heaford  he  had  long  known  by  correspondence, 
but  had  never  seen  until  his  last  visit  to  England  in  the 
spring  of  1909,  when,  after  several  other  meetings,  he 
passed  an  evening  at  Mr.  Hcaford's  house.  Five  months 
later,  at  the  end  of  his  last  letter  to  Mr.  Heaford  from 
the  Carccl  Ccliilar,  written  four  days  before  his  trial  and 


252  FRANCISCO   FERRER 

eight  days  before  the  death  that  he  knew  to  be  hanging 
over  him  by  a  thread,  he  wrote  :  "  Merci  bien,  mon  cher 
ami,  et  excusez  moi.  Je  pense  a  Madame,  a  Arthur, 
et  meme  a  Pickle.  Oh !  nous  nous  verrons  a  Thornton 
Heath  et  a  Frascatti  ^  aussi."  Pickle  is  the  Heafords' 
dog. 

At  the  same  time,  whatever  we  may  find  to  admire  in 
Ferrer,  it  would  be  foolish  to  class  him  either  with  the 
sages  or  with  the  saints.  He  was  not  a  genius  ;  he  was 
not  an  original  or  penetrating  thinker ;  he  was  not  a  man 
of  great  personal  magnetism  or  conspicuous  beauty  of 
character.  What,  then,  makes  him  interesting?  What 
glorifies  and  exalts  a  personality  in  itself  not  very  far 
removed  from  the  commonplace  ?  What  but  the  fact 
of  his  death .''  It  is  his  enemies  that  have  enabled 
him  to  display  the  true  greatness  of  his  character,  and 
have  thrust  immortality  upon  him.  First  the  Madrid 
trial  secured  him  a  certain  measure  of  fame  ;  but  it  was 
still  restricted  to  people  who  took  a  special  interest  in 
rationalist  and  humanitarian  education.  Had  he  then 
been  left  in  peace  to  pursue  his  publishing  schemes,  and 
even  to  re-open  the  Escuela  Moderna,  he  might  have  gone 
to  the  grave  twenty  years  hence,  leaving  behind  him, 
among  the  Latin  nations,  a  certain  repute  as  an  educator, 
but  certainly  nothing  like  world-wide  fame.  His  whole 
life-work  would  have  done  less  damage  to  Spanish  Catholi- 
cism than  the  mere  mention  of  his  name  does  to-day. 
For  by  dragging  him  through  a  travesty  of  trial,  to  a 
plainly  unmerited  doom,  his  enemies  gave  him  an  oppor- 
tunity of  showing  to  all  the  world  his  one  supreme  virtue 
— a  high  and  unflinching  courage.  His  dogmatic  rational- 
ism was  a  somewhat  arid  creed,  but  in  his  death  he  touched 

^  The  Frascati  Restaurant. 


AVE  ATQUE  VALE  253 

it  with  emotion.  His  executioners,  from  Sr.  Maura  down- 
wards, conferred  on  him  a  patent  of  undying  nobility.  The 
man  who  wrote  his  letters  from  prison,  and  who  faced  the 
great  enigma — to  his  mind  no  enigma,  but  night  and 
nothingness, — with  such  serene,  unfaltering  resolution,  is 
certainly  not  the  least  among  the  victims  of  obscuran- 
tism, the  martyrs  of  free  thought. 


APPENDIX 

THE  OFFICIAL   REPORT   OF  THE  TRIAL 


NOTE 

The  following  pages  contain  a  literal  translation  of  the  official 
documents  of  Ferrer's  trial,  as  issued  by,  or  with  the  consent  of,  the 
Spanish  Government.  Large  numbers  of  the  pamphlet  (printed  by 
the  "  Impresores  de  la  Real  Casa  ")  are  said  to  have  been  gratuitously 
distributed  by  the  Ministry  of  the  Interior. 

The  whole  text  is  given,  except  a  few  paragraphs  of  purely  legal 
argument.  Not  a  word  of  anything  purporting  to  be  evidence  is 
omitted.  In  the  translation,  elegance  is  everywhere  subordinated  to 
literal  accuracy.  I  have  not  been  at  pains  to  make  the  present 
rendering  verbally  identical  with  quotations  in  the  foregoing  text,  as 
there  seemed  to  be  no  harm  in  giving  alternative  versions  of  important 
passages. 

I  have  resisted  the  temptation  to  throw  into  relief  the  absurdities 
of  the  case  for  the  prosecution  by  the  use  of  itaHcs  and  other  typo- 
graphical expedients.  The  italics  in  the  text  are  those  of  the  original. 
But  I  have  printed  in  capitals  the  words  "author  and  chief 
of  the  rebellion  "  wherever  they  are  applied  to  Ferrer,  in  order  to 
make  it  abundantly  clear  that  it  was  in  this  character,  and  no  other, 
that  he  was  found  guilty  and  executed. 


ORDINARY    PROCESS 

Conducted  before  the  Military  Tribunals 
AT  the  Station  of  Barcelona 

AGAINST 

Francisco  Ferrer  Guardia 

CASE  FOR  THE   PROSECUTION   BEFORE 
THE   COUNCIL  OF  WAR 

Don   Jesus   Marin   Rafales,   Captain  in   the    57th   Infantry 

(Vergara  Regiment),  acting   as   Prosecutor   in  the   proceedings 

against  Francisco  Ferrer  Guardia,  before  the  ordinary  Council 

of  War  of  the  station,  says — 

Having  been  entrusted,  for  no  merit  of  my  own,  with  the  duty 

of  representing  the  law  at  this  juncture,  I  come  before  the  Court 

entirely    unprejudiced,   and    with    the 

'' In  stern  Judicial  frame  of    sole  aim  of  Studying  reality,  of  what- 

„'"'"  ,'•      r        r  ever  nature  it  may  be,  and  such  as  it 

From    bias  free   of  every 

lil„j  may  appear  from   the  records  of  the 

This  (rial  must  be  tried."       process.      I    shall    remain,    as    every 

member  of  the  Council  of  War  will 
assuredly  remain,  uninfluenced  by  the  gloomy  retrospect  of  late 
events,  and  by  the  popular  voice,  which,  though  sometimes  styled 
"  Vox  Dei,"  yet,  having  no  other  guide  than  instinct,  however 
sure  that  may  be  on  many  occasions,  lacks  a  basis  of  reason  upon 
which  to  found  itself. 

The  frightful  spectacle  of  conflagration  and  pillage  reigning  in 

S 


258  APPENDIX 

this  capital ;  ,the  cruellest  sectarian  passion  felling  the  priest, 

wounded  to  the  death,  at  the  foot  of 
'' The  priest''  and  "the    altar,   or   wresting   from   the  nun   the 
nun-   seem    to    refer  to  an     ^^^^^  ^f  ^^^  j^      -^  ^^^   ^^j.^^^g  ^f 

tndefintte  but  large  number. 

In  fact,  three  priests  lost  their  t^e  cloister ;  the  most  shameful  treason 
lives f  none  of  them  "at  the  disintegrating  the  forces  of  that  Army 
foot  of  the  altar'' ;  and  the    whose  duty  is  to  defend  the  honour  of 

sole  alleged  outrage  on  a  nun      ,i  ,  -  j    ,  •  u   ii-  j 

.    ^    ,  ,,         *  .    ,      „      the  nation,  and  to  punish  the  murder 
}s  probably    mythical.      See  ^ 

p,  iyj_  of  our   countrymen   on   African   soil ; 

all  this  compelled  us  to  adopt  active 
measures  of  repression,  to  repulse  force  by  force  in  the  streets  with 
all  necessary  energy ;  for  all  this,  had  it  not  been  exclusively  the 
work  of  a  few  criminals,  would  constitute  a  standing  disgrace  to 
the  nation  at  large  and  to  this  district  in  particular.  But,  quiet 
once  restored,  the  Courts  once  enjoined  to  fix  responsibility  and 
to  re-establish  order  and  justice,  no  voice  can  be  heard  but  that 
of  the  Law's  majestic  serenity. 

And  now,  in  entering  upon  the  execution  of  my  duty,  and 
while  I  endeavour  to  fulfil  it  with  all  the  conciseness  and  brevity 
compatible  with  the  character  of  the  subject  and  the  practice  of 
military  procedure,  I  feel  it  necessary  to  make  one  preliminary 
remark,  arising  out  of  the  origin  of  the  present  proceedings.  It 
is  this :  since  the  case  now  in  hand  has  branched  off  from  that 
upon  which  Commandant  Don  Vicente  Lliviana  is  engaged,  with 
the  object  of  ascertaining  the  causes  of  the  revolutionary  move- 
ment, and  of  discovering  its  authors  and  instigators,  we  are  not 

now  investigating    the    burning  of    a 
Confession  that  mt  a  single    particular  convent,  nor  an  explosion  at 

overt  act  of  violence  or  ille-      .1  •  •    .  ^u   «.  ^u      j     «.       i- 

,   ,       ,    ,  this  point  or  that,  nor  the  destruction 

gality  can  be  brought  home  to  ^   ■ 

Perrer.  of  One  or  another  section  of  telegraph- 

wire,  nor  the  identity  of  those  who 
built  such-and-such  a  barricade,  or  fired  from  it  upon  the  troops. 
No ;  in  this  case,  as  in  that  from  which  it  springs,  we  are  probing 
the  revolutionary  movement  to  its  hidden  entrails ;  we  unravel  the 
causes  which  gave  it  life ;  we  seek  out  the  authors  who  prepared 
it,  set  it  in  motion,  and  sustained  it ;  we  gather  into  one  great 
synthesis  all  the  particular  facts  which  compose  it,  in  order  to 
consider  it  as  an  organic  and  homogeneous  whole. 


"MAJESTIC  SERENITY"  259 

The  facts  !  Why  enumerate  them?  You  have  all  been  eye- 
witnesses of  the  greater  part  of  them,  and  assuredly  of  the  most 
serious,  those,  namely,  which  took  place  in  this  capital,  whence 
the  movement  spread  like  a  train  of  gunpowder  to  the  minor 
towns  of  this  province  and  that  of  Gerona.     All,  or  nearly  all,  of 

you  must  have  taken  a  more  or  less 
"7yi<?     Laiv's     majestic    active  part  in  their  repression,  from  the 
serenity-   must  not    be  dis-     ^^^^   ^^^^^^   ^^   ^^^    26th   of  July    last, 
tttrbed  by  any  ^^  gloomy  retro-       .  ...  .  , 

sped  of  late  events"  or  appeal  ^he  ostensibly  peaceful  protest  agamst 
to  vindictive  passion.  the  embarkation  of  troops  for  Melilla 

was  initiated,  until  the  time  when,  swept 
by  fire  or  riven  by  dynamite,  the  walls  of  churches  and  convents 
crumbled  to  the  ground,  when  the  volleys  aimed  at  you  from 
roof  and  barricade  were  quelled,  and  when  the  mournful  silence 
of  subdued  rebellion  followed  upon  the  groans  of  the  victims, 
upon  the  blasphemies  amid  which  those  savages,  drunk  with 
blood,  dragged  bodies  forth  from  their  tombs,  and  upon  the  vile 
slang  with  which  repulsive  prostitutes,  before  selling  their  endear- 
ments, accompanied  their  hyena-like  ravages. 

How,  when  such  facts  as  these  have  occurred  before  our  eyes, 
can  there  be  any  question  of  requiring  proof  of  their  existence  ? 
We  can  all,  as  I  said  before,  give  ocular  evidence ;  the  ruins  of 
the  shattered  edifices  remain  to  add  their  testimony ;  the  cry 
of  "  Long  live  the  Republic  "  yet  rings  in  our  ears ;  still,  on  the 
fronts  of  many  buildings,  the  bullet-marks  plainly  score  their 
impassive  accusation. 

[Here  follows  a  technical  argument  as  to  the  legal  definition 
of  the  disturbances,  with  the  object  of  showing  that  they  rightly 
fall  under  the  head  of  "  military  rebellion."] 

I  have  expounded  and  justified  our  qualification  of  the  facts. 
Let  us  proceed  to  do  the  same  with  regard  to  the  accusation 

which  we  are  iformulating  against  the 
The  accusation  formulated,     prisoner,  Francisco  Ferrer  Guardia,  as 

CHIEF    OF    THE     MILITARY     REBELLION. 

The  Court  will  excuse  us  if  the  copiousness  of  the  evidence 
brought  together  with  praiseworthy  zeal,  activity  and  intelligence, 
by  the  Examining  Magistrate  in  the  case,  obliges  us  to  claim  its 
attention  for  some  little  time. 


260  APPENDIX 

To  this  end,  we  must  in  the  first  place  define  what  is  meant 
by  the  word  "  chief."    The  "  chief  "  is  the  man  who  is  in  com- 
mand, who  is  the  superior,  the  head ; 
Definition  of  ^^  chief  of  a    the  man  who  assembles  people,  who 
rebellion^  impels  and  directs  the  rest;  the  man 

who  lifts  up  his  voice,  who  points  out 
the  aim  of  the  rebellion,  who  procures,  apportions  and  distributes 
the  means  that  lead  to  its  attainment.  If  this  is  the  character  of 
the  "  chief  of  a  rebellion,"  is  the  definition  applicable  to  the  share 
which  Francisco  Ferrer  Guardia  took  in  the  events  of  July,  on 
the  showing  of  the  evidence  set  forth  in  the  records  ?  Assuredly 
yes,  and  we  shall  proceed  to  prove  it. 

The  charge  already  begins  to  shape  itself  in  this  sense  with 
the  deposition  of  the  Lieutenant-Colonel  of  the  Guardia  Civil, 

Don  Leoncio  Ponte,  who,  as  appears 
Fifteen  Witnesses.         at  foUo  26  (back),  indicates  Ferrer  as 

(1)  Colonel  Ponte  "indi-    ^^j^j^^    ^^  ^^^j^g       ^  -^^  ^^^  movements 
eates"  and  ^^  considers.      See        ,   ,,  ,    ,-,         .,  1         ,     . 
iii>  78  iq6                            ^^  Masnou  and  Premia,  and  ordermg 

his  partizans  to  repair  to  Barcelona  to 
defend  their  brothers.  This  military  commander  considers  that 
the  Fraternidad  Republicana  of  Premii  seemed  to  be  the  head- 
quarters of  the  incendiaries  and  seditionaries. 

The  charge  acquires  greater  precision  (folio  30,  back)  in  the 
statement  of  the  journalist,  Don  Manuel  Jimenez  Moya,  an  un- 
exceptionable witness,  inasmuch  as  he 

(2)  Jimenez  Moya  gives  his    has    been    banished    to    Majorca    on 

«'^/m/^«"  and  ^^ indicates."    ^ccount  of  the  exaltation  of  his  ideas. 
Ue  was    not   in  Barcelona     ^^  .         .      ,  .  .    .  , 

during  the  riots.   See  p.  1^6.     He  says  that  m  his  opmion,  the   re- 

bellion  originated  with  the  Solidaridad 
Obrera,  where  a  secret  meeting  had  been  held,  and  whence 
delegates  subsequently  set  off  for  various  districts ;  and  he  indi- 
cates Ferrer,  and  his  associates  of  the  Antimilitarist  League,  as 
the  directors. 

Councillor  Don  Narciso  Verdaguer 

(3)  Verdaguer  Callisfrom     ^^^y^^  ,^^y^^      .  continues  in  the  Same 
information   received,    "  con-  \  ^   1  ^  ^ 
tinues  in  the  same  strain."        Strain,  affirming  that,  according  to  infor- 
mation,   which  he   has    no    means   of 

checking,  but  believes  to  be  accurate,  the  events  arose  through 


THE  FIFTEEN  WITNESSES       261 


the  initiative  and  guidance  of  more  or  less  anarchist  elements, 

impelled  and  directed  by  Ferrer  Guardia  and  a  young  teacher 

of  languages  named  Fabre. 

Even  greater  precision  is  given  to  the  charge  in  the  evidence 

of  Don  Juan  Alsina  Estival,  Councillor 
of  Premid,  who  in  his  first  declaration 
(foUo  77)  establishes  the  serious  turn 
taken  by  events  in  that  locality  after 
Ferrer's  arrival  at  the  village  and  his 
conference  with  the  Alcalde ;  and  in  the 
evidence  of  this  witness's  neighbours, 
Don  Juan  Comas  Alsina,  who,  at  folio 
161,  affirms  that  rioting  began  one  hour 
after  Ferrer's  departure ;  Don  Valentin 
Alonso,  Lieutenant  of  the  Carabineers 
(folio  162,  back),  who  points  out  that 
from  the  moment  of  the  prisoner's 
arrival  events  assumed  a  different 
aspect  from  that  which  they  had 
previously  worn;  and  Don  Adolfo 
Cesa  Moragas  and  Don  Pablo  Reig 
Cesa,  who  maintain  (folios  214  and 
216,  back)  that  after  the  conference 
with  Ferrer  the  revolutionaries  changed 
their  attitude. 
Evidence  of  the  same  tendency  as  regards  the  Solidaridad 

Obrera    is    given    by    Don    Emiliano    Iglesias,   Councillor    of 

Barcelona,  though  in  very  vague  terms, 
since  he  only  says  that  he  believes  the 
Solidaridad  spent  more  money  than  it 
possessed ;  but  to  make  up  for  this,  the 

information  is  confirmed  by  a  witness  of  more  than  ordinary 

weight,  namely  Baldomero  Bonet,  the 
(10)  BaUomero  Bonet** be.    defendant  in  the  prosecution  instituted 

lines,"  for  the  burning  of  the   Conceptionist 

Convent,   against    whom,    it    appears, 

serious  charges  arc  pending.     He  says,  in  his  examination  in  the 

aforesaid  case,  certified  at  folio  370  of  the  present  proceedings, 


Various  villagers  (4,  5,  6, 
7,  8)  ''establish'''  the  serious 
turn  taken  by  events  at  PremiA^ 

•'  after  Ferrei^s  arrival" 


•'  one  hour  after  Ferret's  de- 
parture" 


"from    the  moment  of  his 
arrival" 


*' after  the  conference."  Note 
that  Ferrer  conferred  with  no 
*' revolutiottaries  "  save  the 
prosecution's  own  witnesses. 
Seep.  199. 


(9)  Iglesias   **  vaguely   be' 
lieves."     Seep.  197. 


262  APPENDIX 

that  he  believes  the  occurrences  took  their  rise  in  the  Solidaridad 
Obrera,  and  that,  as  the  Solidaridad  does  not  abound  in  resources, 

he  shares  in  the  general  idea  that  the 
"  shares  in  a  general  idea,'^       person   who   furnished   them  was  the 

noted  anarchist  Ferrer.  That  exami- 
nation he  ratified  at  folio  371  of  these  proceedings,  adding  "he 

confirmed  his  opinion,  because  he  could 
and  **  confirms  his  opinion.**      not  conceive   that   any  other   element 

could  have  been  the  cause  of  the  events." 
The  same  current  of  accusation  against  the  Solidaridad  Obrera, 

and  against  Ferrer  as  its  director,  is 
"Curref    of  accusation     sustained   in  the   deposition    of    Don 
sustained"   by  (li)  Modesto     ,,    ,  ^  -^.        ^  .  ^    , 

j^^j.^^  Modesto  Lara,  First  Lieutenant  of  the 

Guardia  Civil  (folio  210),  and  in  that 
of  Don  Alfredo  Garcia  Magallon,  First 

(12)    C<.r./a      MagaUSn     Lieutenant   (retired)   in   the  Artillery, 
*'■  heard    that     Pierre     had  ..  '  "" 

heard  ..."  Seep.  198,  ^^<^,  describing  his  meeting  and  con- 
versation with  the  journalist  Pierre,  of 
El  Frogresff,  says  (folio  480),  that  that  gentleman  asserted  on  his 
part,  as  something  he  had  heard  said,  "  that  the  occurrences  of 
July  were  of  an  anarchist  character,  and  initiated  by  the  Solid- 
aridad Obrera,  under  the  direction  and  absolute  control  of  Ferrer." 

And  if  this  were  not  enough,  Juan  Puig 

"If  this  were  not  enough^*    Ventura,  sumamed  Llarch,  tells  us  on 
KM)  Puig,  surnamed  Llarch,      ^,.  .     .  •    ^        ,       -j  , 

"believes."  ^"^^    particular    point  —  besides    other 

matters  of  great  interest  which  we 
shall  examine  later — in  his  first  two  declarations  (folios  24  and 
76,  back),  that  "he  believes  the  instigator  of  the  whole  to  have 
been  Ferrer,"  since  the  excesses  committed  are  consistent  with 
that  person's  subversive  ideas,  and  with  the  bonds  which  attach 
him  to  members  of  the  Solidaridad  Obrera,  whose  anarchist 
leanings  are  pronounced. 

Don  Domingo  Casas  Llibre,  Alcalde  [of  Premii],  who  held  a 

conference  with  Ferrer,  as  we  shall  see 

(14)  The  Alcalde  *^ formed    later,  and  who  was  prosecuted  for  the 

an  opinion,"  events  in  that  village,  indicates  in  his 

declarations  (folios  138  and  305)  that 
he  formed  the  opinion  that  Francisco  Ferrer  Guardia  was  the 


"STILL   CLEARER  PROOF"        263 

"directing    element"   of    all   the   outrages    committed    in    that 

neighbourhood;  in  which  opinion  also 
in  which  (15)  his  assistant  abounds  Don  Jose  Alvarez  Espinosa, 
secretary  "  also  abounds:'         Assistant  Secretary  to  the  Ayuntamiento 

of  Premia,  who  likewise  had  an  interview 
with  Ferrer,  and  was,  like  the  previous  witness,  prosecuted  for 
these  events  (folios  139  and  313).  He  affirms  that  he  believes 
Ferrer  to  be  ''the  real  instigator  and  inspirer  of  the  events 
of  July." 

Already,  therefore,  we  have  evidential  proof  by  15  witnesses 
indicating  Ferrer  as  director  of  the  occurrences.  Some  base  the 
charge  in  part  upon  his  relations  with  the  Solidaridad  Obrera, 
and  the  share  taken  by  that  society  in  the  events,  alleging  their 

community  of  ideas,  and  even  certain 
As  to  the  pecuniary  aid,     pecuniary     aid ;     others     display    the 
see  pp.  162,  197.  prisoner  personally  in  the  said  charac- 

ter, basing  their  statements  on  the 
events  at  Premid  and  the  acts  of  violence  there  committed,  which 
had  not  occurred  before  his  arrival  in  the  village^  and  his  con- 
ference   with  the   Alcalde    Sr.  Casas,   the   Deputy  Alcalde   Sr. 

Mustare's,  and  the  Assistant  Secretary 
Seep.  198.  to  the  Ayuntamiento  Sr.  Alvarez  Espi- 

nosa, but  which  began  definitely  a  little 
while   after   he   left — according   to  Don   Jaime   Comas   Alsina, 
already  quoted,  something  like  an  hour  after  Ferrer's  departure. 
But    I   have   still   a   clearer  proof.     The  Most  Honourable 

Prosecutor  of  the  Supreme  Court  says 

Don  Javier  Ugarte.    See    that  the  events  at  Barcelona  began  with 

^'  '  ^'  an  ostensibly  peaceful  protest  against 

the  war  and  the  embarkation  of  troops. 

This  is  true,  but  it  is  expedient  to  set 

forth  the  facts  in  detail.      During  the 

No  attempt  made  to  show     morning  of  July  26,  it  is  certain  that 

a  sin  He  act  of  Preparation  or  ..     ..  \  1  • 

,    J    ,.     //   ^„       ,,,      a  protest  began,  bccommg  more  accen- 

l coder  ship    before    the    2()th,  '  °      '  ^ 

though  he  is  admitted  to  have     tuated  m  the  evening;  but  it  is  to  be 
been  shadowed  by  the  police.        noted  that  this  protest  was  never  spon- 
taneous, either  on  the  part  of  the  pop'.i- 
lace  at  large,  or  on  that  of  the  working-class  body  in  particular. 


264>  APPENDIX 

The  proof  of  this  is  clear,  inasmuch  as  the  workmen  did  not 

abandon   their    work,   but   were   com- 
Setp.  127.  pelled  to  suspend  it,  by  the  attitude  of 

the  groups  who  went  around  among 
the  workshops  and  factories.  The  same  applies  to  the  tramway 
staff,  who,  as  you  will  remember,  on  former  occasions  have 
assisted  in  strikes,  but  in  this  case  did  not  leave  their  duty  for 
one  moment,  so  long  as  it  was  possible  to  perform  it,  showing 
genuine  zeal  in  defending,  sometimes  at  their  personal  risk,  the 
cars  which  the  crowds  were  attempting  to  seize,  and  giving  way 
only  in  the  face  of  a  compulsion  which  they  lacked  the  means  to 
dominate. 

On  the  same  evening,  as  already  pointed  out,  events  gathered 
greater  impetus,  and,  just  as  at  Premid  the  witnesses  point  to  the 
change  which  corresponded  with  Ferrer's  presence,  so  here  we 
may  remark  a  similar  phenomenon  if  we  follow  him  step  by  step 

from  the  time  when,  on  the  evening  of 

T/ie     intention     of    the    July  26,  he  left  the  railway  station,  the 

'' author  and  chief '^  to  leave    ^^ain  service  being  interrupted,  and  re- 

ihe  movement   to  look  after  •      i    ,        ,       -r,,  .  •     t  / 

itself  and  return  to  Mongat,     P^.^^^d  to  the  Plaza  Antonio  Lopez  m 

is  accepted  without  comment.      this  capital,  until  the  29th,  when  we 

find  him  to  have  taken  refuge  in  some 
house  and  quarter  unknown,  where,  he  says,  he  lay  concealed 
until  the  day  of  his  arrest. 

In  effect,  Don  Angel  Fernandez  Bermejo,  the  agent  of  vigi- 
lance who  was  told  off  to  shadow  Ferrer,  tells  us  in  his  declaration 

at  folio  481  that  he  saw  him  approach 
The  Police  Spy  testifies  that    the  groups  of  insurgents  who,  on  Mon- 
Ferrerwalkedfrom  the  station     ^        j^j     ^g    ^^  ^^^^j  ^  o'clock  in  the 
to   the  Hotel  Inter nacional,  .  .         ,        ^, 

and  spoke  to  one  or  two  people    evenmg,^  were   m    the   Plaza   Antonio 
on  the  way.  Lopez,   in   this   capital ;    that   on   one 

occasion  when  the  groups  were  dis- 
persed by  a  file  of  cavalrymen  who  were  on  the  spot,  Ferrer  was 
in  one  of  them ;  that  after  the  dispersion  he  proceeded  towards 
the  Puerta  de  la  Paz,  until  he  arrived  in  front  of  Atarazanas 
[barracks]  where  also  he  stood  talking  with  the  persons  who 
composed  one  of  the  groups ;  that  he  then  went  on  up  the 
Ramblas  where,  in  a  charge  of  the  police  force,  the  witness  lost 


DOMENECH  265 

sight  of  him,  but  presently  came  upon  him  again  in  the  same 
Rambla,  by  which  he  made  his  way  to  the  International  Hotel, 
the  managing-clerk  of  which  bore  witness  that  Ferrer  supped 
there,  and  said  he  did  not  know  whether  he  should  return  for  the 
night. 

The  witness  Francisco  Domenech,  barber  of  Masnou,  dove- 
tails his  declaration,  so  to  speak,  with  the  last :  he  says  (foHos  2 1 

and  23)  that  he  came  upon  Ferrer  at 
The  Barber  of  Masnou    half-past    nine   on   the    same   evening 

relates  the  events  of  Monday      ,f   ,  /-  \    •  r '         j  «.u     ^.i. 

•'  -^     (Tuly    26)   m  a   cafe   underneath    the 

evening.  \j     j  i 

International  Hotel,  that  Ferrer  invited 
him  to  enter,  and  that  he  accepted ;  that  from  there  they  pro- 
ceeded to  the  office  of  El  Frogreso,  to  see,  as  Ferrer  put  it, 
*'  what  the  comrades  were  agreeing  to  do  " ;  then  to  the  Cafd 
Aribau;  at  this  point,  however,  witness  corrects  himself  in 
his  second  declaration,  and  says  it  was  not  at  this  cafe,  but 
at  another,  at  the  corner  of  the  Calle  'Aribau  and  the  Calle 
de  la  Universidad,  that  they  met  Calderon,  Ponte,  Tubau, 
and  Sr.  Litrdn  and  his  wifej  that  Ferrer  spoke  with  them,  but 
that  witness  did  not  catch  what  they  were  talking  about;  that 
Ferrer  afterwards  proposed  that  witness  should  repair  to  the 
Calle  Nueva  de  San  Francisco,  to  the  Solidaridad,  to  find  out 
whether  any  of  Ferrer's  associates  were  there ;  that  witness 
refused,  and  that  Litrdn  volunteered  to  do  it;  that  Ferrer  and 
Domenech  then  returned  to  the  office  of  El  Frogreso,  and  that, 
on  coming  out,  Ferrer  told  him  that  he  had  not  found  the  person 

he  was  seeking,  adding  that  Iglesias  and 

The  address  to  the  Govern-     some  Others  had  not  consented  to  sign 

ment.    Seep.  208.  a  document  he  had  with  him,  which  was 

to  be  sent  to  the  Government,  demand- 
ing the  discontinuance  of  embarkations  for  Melilla  "  since,  in  the 
opposite  event,  they  would  make   a  revolution,   the  signatories 

putting  themselves  at  the  head  of  the 

Ferrer  did  not  see  Iglesias.     people  "  ;   and  that  Iglesias  had  said  to 

Seep.  197.  him  that   it  would  be  best  to  resume 

work,  and  had  asked  him  on  what 
forces  he  relied  for  what  was  proposed ;  that  thence  they  intended 
to  return  to  their  homes;  but  that  in  the  Calle  dc  la  Princesa 


266  APPENDIX 

two  persons  stopped  them,  of  whom  one  was  named  Moreno ;  that 

to  him  Ferrer  said  that  at  the  office  of 
Meeting  with  Moreno.  El  Progreso  there  were  some  represen- 

tatives of  the  Solidaridad  trying  to  come 
to  an  understanding  with  the  radicals,  who  had  up  to  that  time 
decHned ;  that  he  enjoined  Moreno  to  return  there  to  see  if  they 
were  coming  to  an  understanding,  upon  which  Moreno  repUed 
that  "  they  were  already  compromised,"  and,  Domenech  proceeds, 
Moreno  added,  "  And  woe  to  him  who  shall  fail  us,  for  we  will 
do  with  him  as  they  do  with  traitors  in  Russia  !  " 

Great  as  is  the  importance  of  these  declarations,  which  bear 
witness  to  Ferrer's  direction  of  the  events  of  July  26,  throwing 

into  relief    his    leadership    and   his 

His"  leadership- is  shown    i^^^^i^^on  of  the  movement,  their  im- 

by  hts  wanting  to  know  what  .  •■   ,        ,  , 

other  people  are  deciding  to    Portance  IS  augmented  by  the  declara- 

do.  tions    of    Don    Lorenzo    Ardid,    and 

troopers  Claudio  Sanchez  Yugo  and 
Miguel  Calvo,  of  the  Dragoons  of  Santiago. 

Ardid  tells  us  in  the  certified  copy  of  the  declaration  he  made 
in  the  proceedings  taken  against  him,  appearing  at  folio  348,  and 

ratified  at  folio  395A,  that  on  Monday, 

The  incident  of  the  Casa    July  26,  he  was  taking   coffee  at   the 

dil  Pueblo.  Casa  del  Pueblo,  when  Ferrer  came  in, 

gave  him  good-day,  and  said  he  wished 
to  speak  to  him  in  private.     "  When  you  please,"  replied  Ardid  ; 

whereupon  Ferrer  asked  him,  "  What 
Question  and  answer.  do  you  think  about  the  events  of  to- 

day ? "  Witness  replied,  "  It  is  all 
over,  because  it  is  a  sort  of  protest  which  cannot  go  any  further." 
Then  Ferrer  asked  him  again  :  "  Do  you  think  it  cannot  go  any 
further?"  Witness  repUed  with  energy,  and  Ferrer  remained 
silent.     Then  Ardid  turned  his  back  upon  him  and  approached 

one  of  the  members,  to  whom  he  said, 

For  Ardid's  own  account     "  Tell   that    gentleman "   (pointing   to 

0  the  incident,  see  p.  20s.         Ferrer)   "to   go   away  quickly  by  the 

side  door."  Ferrer  obeyed.  The  same 
witness  adds  that  Litr^n  was  sitting  at  the  table  with  him,  and 
that  he  suspects  that  Ferrer  was  one  of  the  organizers  of  the 


THE   TROOPERS  267 

events.     This   declaration  is   obviously  important,  not   only  in 

itself,  but  because  Ardid  persisted  in  it  with  extraordinary  energy 

at  his  confrontation  with  the  prisoner,  which  appears  on  folio  414. 

Ferrer,  who  had  in  his  deposition  denied  that  he  had  been  at 

the  Casa  del  Pueblo,  was  forced  to 
^jDn  Ferrer's  denial,  see  p.     ^j^^^  ^^^  ^^^^^^  ^^^-^^^  ^^^^  j^^  ^^^  ^^^ 

absolutely  deny  having  been  at  that 
place,  and  that,  as  he  wished  to  see  Sr.  Litran,  he  naturally  went 
there  to  look  for  him  ;  at  the  same  time,  he  had  to  admit  that 
he  recollected  seeing  Sr.  Ardid  on  July  26. 

Troopers  Claudio  Sanchez  and  Miguel  Calvo,  for  their  part, 
corroborate  the  evidence  of  the  agent  of  vigilance,  Don  Angel 

Fernandez  Bermejo,  as  to  what  occurred 

Two  troopers  testify  that    jj^   j^g   pj^^^   Antonio  Lopez.      They 

Ferrer  desired  to    read    the  ,-  ,.  „  j      o    \  ^u   ..     ..     u      ^ 

Captain-GeneraPs  proclan,a-      '^V  (^^^'""^   484  and  485)  that  at  about 

fion.  half-past  five  on  the  day  aforesaid,  the 

26th,  they  came  on  patrol  duty  together 
in  that  square,  and  were  struck  by  the  presence  in  the  groups  of 
an  individual  dressed  in  a  different  way  from  the  others,  who 

seemed  to  be  workmen,  whereas   this 

TJU  blue  suit  and  straw    individual  was  wearing  a  blue  suit,  and 

hat.    Seep.  207.  a  Straw  hat  with  the  brim  turned  down 

over  the  forehead  and  up  at  the  back  ; 
and  as  they  were  dispersing  one  group,  this  individual  confronted 
Claudio  Sanchez,  and,  pointing  to  the  proclamation  affixed  to  the 
wall,  said  to  him  "May  one  not  read  that?"  The  declarations 
of  the  two  troopers  are  of  obvious  importance,  not  only  for  their 
intrinsic  value,  but  also  on  account  of  the  fact  that  both  witnesses, 
on  three  occasions,  among  a  circle  of  prisoners,  identified 
Francisco  Ferrer  Guardia  as  the  individual  referred  to  in  their 
depositions,  as  appears  from  folios  488  and  489. 

As  regards  the  following  day,  July  27,  although  Ferrer  had 

returned  to  his  house,  Mas  Germinal, 
Tuesday  the  2Vh.  j^    ^^^    ^^^jy   ^^^^^   ^f    the    morning. 

This  is  a  slip.    Ferrer  did    arriving  at  Masnou  in  the  company  of 
not  goto  Masnou,  but  parted    prancisco  Domencch,  the  witness  above 

front  Domencch  at  MomnU.  ,,,,-,  ,       ■ 

quoted — both  of  them  havmg  previ- 
ously breakfasted  at  a  caft'  in  Badalona — still  Ferrer,  it  is  known, 


268  APPENDIX 

could  not  remain  inactive;  and  in  case  the  enthusiasm  of  his 
followers  should  abate,  he  seems  to  have  thought  his  directorship 
and  presence  necessary  in  Barcelona.     The  proof  of  this  is  the 

declaration  of  Don  Francisco  de  Paula 
The  Catholic  journalist  Colldefons  (folio  492).  This  gentle- 
man affirms  that  on  Tuesday  the  27th, 
between  7.30  and  8.30  in  the  evening,  he  saw  a  group  in  the 
Ramblas,  opposite  the  Liceo  [Theatre],  captained^  mark  this  well, 
captained  by  a  person  who  appeared  to  him  to  be  Francisco 
Ferrer    Guardia;    he  knew  him   only  from   a   photograph,  but 

acquired  the  certainty  that  this  must 
•who  did  not  know  Ferrer^  be  he  by  hearing  it  said  by  those  who 
and  is  the  solitary-witness  who    passed  the  spot;  the  group  linlquestion 

purports  to  have  seen  him  proceeded  along  the  Calle  del  Hospital. 
exercising  any  sort  of  leader-  °  .  ^ 

ship.    Seep.  212.  -^"^  when  the  Examining   Magistrate 

complied  with  the  prescribed  formality 

(as  appears  at  folio  493),  witness  three  times  identified  Ferrer 

among  a  circle  of  prisoners  as  the  person  he  had  seen  on  the 

said  day,  and  at  the  said  place. 

The  28th  is  a  day  of  extraordinary  activity  for  Ferrer;  he 

is   ubiquitous,  and  such  places  as  his 

Wednesday,     the     2%th.     direct     impulsion    cannot    reach    are 

Ferrer  is  ^Uibiquitous^' -in  reached  by  that  of  his  agents,  who 
precisely  two  places — the  ad-     ,  .... 

foining  villages  of  Masnou  brazenly  speak  m  his  name  to  the 
and  Premia.  multitude,  to  entice  it  into  committing 

those   excesses  which  we  all   deplore. 

„        . .  ,     ,      ,      ,      But  for  that  very  reason,  it  is  the  day 

He  went  to  be  shaved,  as  he  .  ^ 

did  every  Wednesday  and  ^hich  leaves  the  most  frequent  traces 
Saturday.  There  is  no  sug-  of  his  Steps,  and  produces  the  greatest 
gestion  in  the  evidence  that  he,     number  of  witnesses  who  point  to  him ; 

on  this  occasion,   shaved   so  j    v  •     _     i.  r       ^l    ^ 

^    ,      ,.     .  , .      and  It  IS  perhaps  for  that  reason,  too, 

as  to  alter  m  any  way  his  r  r  i         j 

habitual  appearance.  that  Ferrer  begins  his  work  by  being 

shaved  at   Masnou,  in  order  to   pass 
more  unremarked  and  thus  elude  the  action  of  justice. 

In   the   first   place,  Francisco  Do- 
The  Barber  again.  menech,  whom  we  have  quoted  several 

times,  tells  us,  on  the  folio  above  referred 
to,  that  on  the   28th  Ferrer  presented  himself  at  the  barber's 


LLARCH  269 

shop  at  Masnou,  where  witness  was  employed,  to  be  shaved. 
Ferrer  told  him  to  go  and  fetch  the  president  of  the  Republican 
Committee,  Juan  Puig  Ventura,  called  Llarch^  to  see  if  there  was 

anything  doing.     He  came,  and  Ferrer 
Domemch  speaks  as  though    proposed   that   he    should    go   to   the 
thts  conversation  took  place  in      _,  -r-rn         i  i-        i-r.         ii- 

thebarher'sshop;  Llarchsays  ^own  Hall  and  proclaim  the  Republic  ; 
they  went  to  a  deserted  house  Puig,  like  the  Others,  declined  to  do 
in  another  street,  seeming  to  this,  thinking  that  Ferrer  merely  wished 
imply  that  Domenech  was  to  compromise  them.  Late  in  the  even- 
ing of  that  day,  there  were  numerous 
groups,  in  a  somewhat  turbulent  mood,  of  strangers  from  the 
neighbouring  villages,  who  were,  according  to  their  own  account, 
awaiting  Ferrer's  arrival ;  but  he  did  not  appear.  Witness  adds 
that  Ferrer  disappeared  from  his  house  on  the  29th,  and  that  he 
did  not  see  him  again. 

Domenech's   narrative   is   confirmed  and  amplified  by  Juan 
Puig  Ventura,  called  Z/anh,  to  whom,  as  we  have  just  seen,  the 

former  witness  alludes  :  a  man  of  upright 

Llarch  means  "tall"  in    character,  and,  despite  his  opinions,  an 

Catalan.       The    man    is    a        ,^   .  ...  ,  •  ,     ,  ,  ,. 

blacksmith.    T/ure  is  reason    efficient   auxiliary   to   the    Alcalde    of 

to  suppose  that  the  testimonial  Masnou  in  the  task  of  keeping  order  in 
to  his  pacific  character  came  that  district,  and  opposing  the  inter- 
from  himself.  See  Un  Mar-  ference  of  external  elements.  He  has 
tyr  des  Pretres, /.  56.  •  ^   j    •      ^1  ,.  ^  ^       vi 

persisted  in  the  same  statement,  with- 
out any  sort  of  wavering  or  retractation,  in  his  four  declarations 
(folios  24,  76,  back,  136  and  457)  and  maintained  them  with 
the  utmost  resolution  at  his  confrontation  with  the  prisoner,  as 
appears  from  folio  458. 

Very  well,  then :  Llarch.,  after  confirming  that  he  was  summoned 
by  Domenech  on  behalf  of  Ferrer,  says  in  his  declarations  that 

he   went   with   the   latter  into   an   un- 
Ile  says  ''with  the  latter;'     inhabited  house  in  the  Calle  de  Puerto 

not    ^'^  with    the    latter    and     _.  j    ,t     .     i  i 

Domenech:'    See  note,  abcrve.      ^'^O'    ^°^  '^at  there   the  prisoner  ex- 

pounded  to  him  the  necessity  of  sup- 
porting in  that  district  the  movement  of  Barcelona,  that  he, 
Llarch,  replied  that  he  did  not  consider  this  by  any  means 
desirable;  that  Ferrer  insisted,  saying  that  they  must  begin  by 
stirring  people  7ip,  in  order  thai  some  of  them  should  set  forth  to 


270  APPENDIX 

burn  churches  and  convents :  to  witness's  reply  that  he  did  not 
understand  how  this  course  would  pave  the  way  to  a  Republic, 
Ferrer  rejoined  that  for  his  part ^  he  cared  little  about  a  Republic : 

the  poijit   was  t/iaf  there   should  be    a 

Ferrer  {yi.^x\.^x, p.  ifi) says     revolution;   that  Ferrer  suggested  that 
they  xoent  to  Fremid  in  hope      ^^-^^^gg   ^j^^^^^  ^^-^j^  j^j^  ^^  p^^^^.^ 

of  getting  nrMsfrom  Barce-       .       ^,  v.  -uj*  ..u 

lona  from  a  steamer  that  ^6   Mar,  where  he  Wished  to  see  the 

seemed  to  be  putting  in  there.  Alcalde,   Sr.  Casas,  and  that  to  this 

No  attempt  was  made  to  verify  witness  saw  no  objection.     Once  there, 

or  contradict  this  assertion.  ^^^^^^    ^^^^    ^^    ^^^^     gentleman    the 

same  proposition  which  he  had  formerly 

Liarch  obviously  was  in    made  to  witness.    On  the  way  back  to 

Ferrer's  company  the  whole    Masnou,   they  met   a  band   of  young 

time.      eep.  199.  ^^^^    coming    from     Barcelona,     who 

narrated   what  had   happened  at  that 

town.    Ferrer,'after  hearing  the  account, 

Seepp,  215,  220.  said,  "  Thafsgood!  Courage!  everything 

must  be  destroyed  I "  Arrived  at  Masnou, 
Ferrer  again  insisted   on   his   proposi- 
tions,  the   other  again  refusing,  as  he 
Llareh  "  believes."  had  done  throughout  the  walk ;  and  he 

believes  that,  had  itnotbeen  for  Ferrer, 
the  strike  begun  on  the  26th  would  not  have  led  to  such  sad  results. 
The  interview,  to  which  the  last  witness  refers  in  his  evidence, 
took  place  between  Ferrer,  accompanied  by  witness,  and  Don 
Domingo  Casas  LUbre,  the  Alcalde  of  Premia  de  Mar,  on  the 
premises  in  that  village  occupied  by  the  Fraternidad  Republicana, 
Don  Antonio  Mustares,  the  Deputy  Alcalde,  and  Don  Jose  Alvarez 
Espinosa,  the  Assistant  Secretary  of  the  Ayuntamiento,  also  being 
present.  It  is  certified  by  five  eye-witnesses,  namely :  the  four 
above-mentioned,  who,  with  Ferrer,  took  part  in  the  interview, 

and   Calvet,   the    waiter    who    served 
It  would  seem  thai  all    them;  by  two  others,  Lorenzo  Arnau 

Arnau  and  Calve  did  was  to      ^^a     t   •  ^       ri  ^     '         u  -j 

,,    ,,     ,.,^,  ,         ,      and    Jaune   Calve,   who  accompanied 

stroll  a  little  way  along  the  •'  '  ^ 

village  street  with  Ferrer  and  ^larch  and  Ferrer  to  the  scene  of  the 
Liarch.  interview;    and    by  two   others,   Don 

Jaime  Comas  and  Don  Pedro  Cesa  y 
Cesa,  who  saw  them  go  in,  the  declarants  being  themselves  in  the 


THE  ALCALDE 


271 


Tlu  19  witnesses  (/  make 
tJum  only  18)  are  in  reality 
only  5.  Four  of  the  rest  only 
saw  Ferrer  enter  the  Frater- 
nidad  Republicana  {which  he 
never  denied  that  he  did)  while 
the  remainder  report  only 
hearsay. 


These  '^  accidental  dis 
creparuies  are  discreetly  sup- 
pressed. 


Cafe  de  Baldomero.  Add  to  these  the  witnesses  Don  Francisco 
Cahu^,  Don  Juan  Alsina,  Don  Vicente  Puig  Pons,  Don  Valentin 
Alonso  Poblet,  Don  Pablo  Reig  Cesa,  Don  Adolfo  Cesa,  Don 
Jaime  Font,  and  Don  Jose  Canes,  who  heard  the  fact  reported 
by  the  Alcalde  at  the  meeting  of  the  chief  ratepayers  of  that 
district,  held  on  the  30th  of  July  last ;  and  yet  another  witness, 

Don  Antonio  Costa  Page's,  who  learnt 
it  from  Lorenzo  Arnau,  Ferrer's  com- 
panion. In  all,  19  witnesses  who 
certify  the  fact. 

Let  us  hear  how  Francisco  Calvet 
relates  it  in  his  declaration  on  folios 
41 2j  back,  and  477,  a  narrative  with 
which,  except  for  a  few  accidental 
details,  all  the  rest  agree.  He  says 
that  on  Wednesday  the  28th  at  about 
half-past  twelve,  when  he  was  in  a 
room  used  as  an  annexe  to  the  Fra- 
ternidad  Republicana,  on  the  first  floor 
of  the  house,  two  persons  entered,  of  whom  one  was  Llarch^  and 
the  other  was  unknown  to  him ;  the  latter  wore  a  light  suit  and  a 
straw  hat.  He  asked  witness  if  they  might  sit  down  for  a  few 
minutes,  and  whether  they  could  be  served  with  an  aerated  drink 
and  a  glass  of  beer ;  to  which  witness  replied  in  the  affirmative. 
A  short  time  afterwards,  Casas,  Mustards,  and  Alvarez  Espinosa 

arrived,  and  then  the  unknown  said, 
"  I avi  Ferrer  Guardia.'"  The  declarant 
adds  of  his  own  knowledge  that  this 
provoked  a  sort  of  astonishment  among 
the  hearers,  and  particularly  in  himself, 
owing  to  the  amount  of  evil  he  had 
Then  Ferrer  proceeded,  addressing  the 
Alcalde,  "  I  am  come  to  tell  you  that  the  Republic  must  be  pro- 
claimed at  Pretnid."  To  this  the  Alcalde  replied,  "Sr.  Ferrer,  I 
do  not  accept  these  words,"  and  the  prisoner  rejoined,  "  How 
should  you  not  accept  them  if  the  Republic  is  already  proclaimed 
at  Nfadrid,  Barcelona,  Valencia,  and  other  capitals?  " 

But  this  is  not  the  sole  importance  of  what  Ferrer  did  at 


J  ascertained  by  inquiry 
that  Ferrer  knew  the  Alcalde 
beforehand ;  where  was  the 
need  for  this  melodramatic 
disclosure  { 

heard  about  that  person. 


272 


APPENDIX 


Out  of  three  different  ver- 
sions (see  p.  199)  the  Prose- 
cutor elects  to  stand  by  * '  barely 
an  hour  after y 


No  trace  of  evidence  to  con- 
nect Ferrer  with  this  mart. 


Alsina  "  declares  his  moral 
certainty." 


Premid.    We  have  already  mentioned  the  names  of  the  witnesses 

who  speak  to  the  violent  aspect  which 
events  at  Premi^  assumed  barely  an 
hour  after  Ferrer's  departure  from  the 
village;  and  we  must  now  add  that 
the  same  waiter,  Calvet,  mentions  the 
fact  that  another  individual,  known  as 
Casola,  during  the  days  of  the  dis- 
turbances, frequently  went  in  and  out 
of '  certain  rooms  in  the  Fratemidad 
Republicana,  and  as  to  this  Casola, 
whose  real  name  was  Sola,  Don  Juan 
Alsina  declares  his  moral  certainty  that 
he  received  directly  from  Ferrer  the 
instructions  for  the  revolution.  The  same  gentleman  maintains, 
as  also  do  the  witnesses  Puig  Pons,  Comas  Alsina,  Reig  Cesa, 
Cesa  Moragas,  and  Font  Alsina,  that  at  the  meeting  of  the  chief 
ratepayers  on  July  30,  the  Municipal  Judge  asked  the  Alcalde 

if  he  was  aware  that  on  the  night  of 
the    attack    on    the   Convent    of    the 
Brethren  of  the  Christian  Doctrine  one 
of  the  assailants  carried  dynamite,  and 
when  the  Alcalde  answered  in  the  nega- 
tive,   the    Judge    pressed    the    point, 
saying  inquiries  should  be  made  to  find 
out  who  was  the  municipal  employee 
who   carried  the   dynamite   cartridges, 
and  that  if  the  inquiries  were  fruitless, 
he  himself  would  say  who  it  was.     The 
fact  of  the  use  of  dynamite  against  the  above-mentioned  convent 
is  certified  by  the  declaration  (folio  476)  of  Jeronimo  Cardona, 
the  night-watchman  of  the  neighbourhood,  who  says  that  during 
the  attack  on  the  convent  he  heard,  besides  the  gunshots,  two 
very  loud  detonations,  as  though   of  dynamite  or  some   other 
explosive ;  similarly,  in  another  declaration  (folio  406)  he  affirms 
that  his  companion  Jaime  Cesa   told  him   that   Ferrer  was   at 
Premii  in  order  to  place  himself  at  the  head  of  the  revolutionary 
movement. 


/  was  assured  on  the  spot 
that  this  convent  was  threat- 
ened but  never  actually  at- 
tacked, and  that  the  dynamite 
was  entirely  mythical.  But 
even  if  it  existed,  there  is 
nothing  to  connect  Ferrer 
with  it.  If  Llarch  had  seen 
him  distributing  dynamite 
cartridges,  he  would  have 
mentioned  the  fact. 


ONE   EYE-WITNESS 


273 


Hearsay  again. 


Not  one  of  the  orators,  not 
one  of  the  crowd,  produced. 


Puigdemon  being  under- 
lined  as  a  testigo-presencial, 
or  eye-witness,  it  is  clear  that 
Domenech  (/.  269)  did  not 
pretend  to  be  an  eye-wilness, 
but  merely  spoke  from  hear- 
say.    See  p.  202. 


Moreover,  the  witness  Don  Salvador  Millet  (folio  364)  says, 
from  information  he  had  received,  that  some  bands  of  insurgents 

appeared  at  Masnou  on  July  27  or  28, 
attacked  the  Town  Hall,  and  harangued 
the  crowd  from  the  balconies,  inciting 
them  to  join  in  the  movement,  one  of 
the  speakers  asserting  that  he  spoke 
in  the  name  of  Ferrer  "  who  could  tiot 
himself  take  part  in  the  affair,  si?ice  the 
events  0/  the  revolution  (kmanded  his  presence  at  Barcelona."  This 
fact   is   established,   apart   from   the  statements  of  Llarch   and 

Domenech,  with  which  we  have  already 
dealt,  by  the  declaration  of  an  eye- 
witness, Esteban  Puigdemon,  who  asserts 
(folio  473)  that,  from  the  door  of  his 
house,  which  stands  next  to  the  Town 
Hall,  he  watched  the  arrival  at  Masnou, 
on  the  28th,  of  the  group  of  insurgents, 
strangers  to  the  village,  and  that  one 
of  them  harangued  the  crowd,  saying  that  he  came  on  behalf  of 
Ferrer,  who  was  unable  to  be  present. 

All  that  has  been  set  forth  would  certainly  suffice  to  convince 
any  one  of  the  character  of  chief  of  the  rebellion  which 

belongs  to  Francisco  Ferrer  Guardia, 
since  we  have  seen  him  sometimes 
leading  it  in  person,  as  we  indicated 
by  pointing  to  his  presence  in  the 
Rambla  of  Barcelona  on  the  evening 
of  the  27th — at  other  times,  fixing  the 
aim  of  the  rebellion,  and  seeking  forces 
to  effect  it,  as  follows  from  his  manifesto 
to  the  Government,  which,  during  the 
night  of  the  26th,  he  presented  to  the 
Committee  of  radicals  assembled  at 
the  office  of  El  Progrcso,  and  also  from 
tbe  efforts  to  attract  others  made  during 
that  same  night,  by  the  Committee  of 
the   Solidaridad,   his   work,    as    well    as   from   his    pertinacious 


The  one  alleged  instance  of 
personal  leadership  has  mul- 
tiplied into  several.  This 
"  sometimes  "  —  "  ^«  unos 
momentos  " — is  characteristi- 
cally insidious. 


It  was  not  "his"  mani- 
festo.   Seep.  208. 

No  shred  of  proof  that  t/u 
Solidaridcul  was  "  his  work." 
His  connection  with  it  was, 
in  fact,  slight  and  casual. 


274  APPENDIX 

discussions  with  Llarch,  and  from  his  conference  with  the  Alcalde 
of  Premid  de  Mar- 
But  there  is  more  yet,  which  I  must  not  pass  by  in  silence. 
You  will  recollect  that  the  two  troopers  Claudio  Sanchez  and 
Miguel  Calvo  observed  a  person  in  a  blue  suit  and  straw  hat,  who 

attracted  their  attention  as  they  were 

Probably  the  commonest  of    dispersing    the   groups    in    the    Plaza 

summer  costumes,  Antonio    Lopez.     You    will    recollect 

that  when  he  was  subjected  to  the 
process  of  identification,  they  pointed  out  Ferrer  as  the  person 
in  question.  Well,  the  Colonel,  and  Captain  Don  Ramon  Puig, 
of  the  Dragoons  of  Santiago,  say  in  their  declarations  (folios 
486   and   487)    that   on    July   28,   when    they  were   with    the 

regiment  in  the  tramway-sheds  situated 
JIow  is  it  that  not  one  of    in  the  Calle  de  Borrell  and  the  Ronda 
these  ''arrested"  individuals    ^^  San  Pablo,  arresting  and  searching 
is  produced  to  identify  Ferrer     ^^^^^.^    individuals  who   proved  tO   be 
[three   times)  tn   a  circle  of  ,         ^ 

prisoners?  armed  with  new  Smith  revolvers,  they 

asked  these  persons  whence  these 
weapons  came;  and  they  replied  that  they  had  received  them 
from  a  gentleman  unknown  to  them,  who,  however,  wore  a  blue 
suit  and  a  straw  hat.  Does  so  singular  a  coincidence  suggest 
nothing  to  you  ? 

Yet  more :  the  witness  Don  Jose  Canes  points  out  to  us  an 
individual  known  as  Mamadits  as  having  been  frequently  in  and 

out  of  the  Fraternidad  Republicana  at 

Again  no  trace  of  evidence    Premid,  during  the  days  of  the  distur- 

to connect '' Mamadits" with    \^^^^q^  ^ho  Cycled   from  Masnou  and 

Ferrer,  or  to  show  that  he  ,  •     ,,  t       .•  ^ 

had  anything  to  do  with  the    returned  m  the  same  direction  on  leav- 

disturbances.  ing  the  Fraternidad.    Don  Vicente  Puig 

Pons  indicates  the  existence  of  a  band 

of  thirty  men  whom  he  believes  to  have 

Puig  Pom  "  believes"  but    been  recruited  by  Ferrer,  and  who  ap- 

"  has  no  personal  knowledge."    pgared  at   Premid,  observing  that,  al- 

He  repeats  the  tattle  of  the      ,         ,    ,       ,  .  .  ,    , 

crowd.    What  had  become  of    though  he  has  no  personal  knowledge 

the  30  quarrymen  ?  of  the  fact  of  the  recruitment,  yet  this 

must  be  the  case,  since,  when  people 
asked  each  other  whence  those  men  came,  the  reply  was  given, 


IRRELEVANCES  275 

"They  are  the  quarrymen  whom  Ferrer  is  said  to  have  sent." 

Don  Jaime  Comas  declares  that  on  the 

IVliat  has  this  to  do  with     evenings   of  July   26  and    27    he  saw 

Ferrer?  several  cyclists  arrive  who,  the  people 

said,  were  the  scouts  of  the  insurgents ; 
but  he  did  not  know  what  became  of  them  in  the  village.     Don 

Pedro  Page's  reports  that  he  has  read  in 

The  sole  alleged  instance  of    La  Almudaina,  3.  newspaper  of  Palma 

Ferrer  having  paid  money  to    j^  Majorca,  that  a  contractor  from  San 

rioters    is    reported    on     the      .      ,    /      i      -,-.  i  •  -n 

authority    of  a   newspaper    ^'^"^''^^  de  Palomar,  passmg  on  Tues- 

paragraph,  not  even  produced,  day  the  27  th  along  the  coast  road,  was 
but  only  remembered.  Stopped  at  Masnou  by  a  group  among 

whom  he  recognized  some  of  his  work- 
men ;  and  when  he  expressed  surprise  at  their  behaviour,  they 
told  him  that  they  would  do  him  no  harm,  but  that  they  must 
carry  out  the  orders  of  Sr.  Ferrer,  who  had  been  there  in  the 
morning   and   had   given  them  money.     Don    Bruno   Humbert, 

Chief  Deputy  to  the  Alcalde  of  Mongat 

What  has  this  to  to  with     (Tiana),  within  whose  municipal  boun- 

Ferrer?  daries  the   prisoner's   property   known 

as  Mas  Germinal  was  situated,  says  that 
from  the  27th  to  the  29th  July,  from  the  road  in  front  of  his 
house,  he  saw  in  the  distance  groups  of  five  or  six  persons  who 
seemed  to  be  watching  something,  and  who  caused  passing 
carriages  and  bicycles  to  stop.     And  lastly,  a  workman  named 

Rosendo  Gudas  reports  that  while  he 

Manifestly  a  passing  re-     was   engaged   in   repairing  a  door   in 

mark  carelessly  or  maliciously    Ferrer's  house  on  the  27th  or  29th,  he 

misreported.  j^^g  ^^^  remember  which,  Ferrer  came 

up  to  him  and  said,  "  Rosendo,  what  do 
they  think  at  Tiana?  Now  is  the  time  to  burn  down  everything." 
Having  thus  investigated  the  evidential  proof  adduced  to 
establish  the  character  of  CHIEF  of  thk  reijellion  attaching  to 
the  person  of  the  prisoner — an  investigation  which  must  doubtless 
have  seemed  to  you  heavy  and  tiring  in  consequence  of  the  large 
number  of  declarations  which  I  have  been  obliged  to  analyze, 
and  of  the  inevitable  repetitions  which  weary  the  attention  of  the 
audience  in  cases  of  this  kind — I  pass  to  a  rapid  survey  of  the 


276  APPENDIX 

confrontations  carried  out.  But  first  I  must  call  attention  to  a 
detail  which  has  struck  me,  as,  I  think,  it  will  strike  you  :  namely 
that,  although  the  number  of  witnesses  who  have  given  evidence 
in  the  Sumario  approaches,  if  it  does  not  exceed,  70,  and  although 
there  are  among  them  some,  but  not  so  many  as  might  have 
been  expected,  who  maintain  that  they  know  nothing  and  have 

seen  nothing,  yet  no  single  instance  is 
Tki  effrontery  of  this  re     f^^^^j  ^f  ^ne  who  has  spoken  a  word 
mark  scarcely  calls  for  com-  .  ...       .  ,  .  ,  .   , 

,nent.     The  Prosecutor  well     ^r    given    an    mdication    whlch    might 
knew  that  there  were  at  least    serve  to  exculpate  the  prisoner. 
a  score  of  people  eager  to  give  Coming  now  to  the  confrontations, 

^ndence  in  Ferrer's  favour     j^  ^^^^^^  ^^  ^^^^  ^^^  ^^^^   ^^^^^^ 

had  they  not  been  denied  a 
hearing.  \Qo\i  place  gave  a  surpnsmg  result,  the 

witnesses  standing  to  their  affirmations 
with  an  absolute  firmness  such  as  we  find  in  few  cases. 

The   first  confrontation,   between   Lorenzo   Ardid   and    the 

prisoner   (folio   414),   completely    dis- 

Confrontation  with  Ardid.     Credits  the  assertion  made  by  the  latter 

Seep.  205.  in   his  second   examination  appearing 

on  folios  195  to  261  of  this  case.  In 
it  he  roundly  denied  that  he  had  been  at  the  Casa  del  Pueblo 
since  some  time  in  June.  But  when  Ardid  steadily  persisted  that 
he  had  been  there  on  the  26th  of  July,  and  spoken  with  him  as 
set  forth  in  his  declaration,  Ferrer  had  to  admit  that  he  did  not 
absolutely  deny  it,  since  he  remembered  to  have  seen  the  said 
gentleman  on  that  day,  adding  that,  as  he  wished  to  see  his  friend 
Litr^n,  it  was  not  surprising  that  he  should  go  there  to  look  for 
him.     And  as  for  the  other  statements  of  his  opponent,  he  does 

not  deny  them  either,  but  says  he  does 

This  exactly  describes  the    "ot   recollect  them,  which  is  not   the 

incidait:    "«    cotiversation    same  thing,  and  adds  that  he  attaches 

over  a  restajtrant  table."  ^q  importance  to  a  conversation  over 

a  restaurant  table. 
In  the  second  confrontation,  between   Juan  Puig  Ventura, 

called  Llarch^  and  Ferrer  (folio  458), 

<r.fr{7f  "'?rf  f'^'i  it  appears  that  after  seeing  the  attitude 

Seep.  217.     Llarck  also  satd  ^   ^f                          ,         ,             ,         1      •    j 

"he  foresaw    that    Ferrer  °'    ^^^    latter,   who    brazenly    denied 

'would  abiund in  explanations  everything,  the  former  said,  addressing 


CONFRONTATIONS  277 

and  denials''— a  foresight  the  prisoner,  that  "neither  his  diplo- 
which  does  not  seem  to  have  macy  nor  interest  should  make  him 
favourably  impressed  even  the    g^verve  from  the  truth,"  and,  in  the  face 

of  subsequent  denials,  he  exclaims,  "  I 
retract  nothing  ! " 

In  the  third  (folio  460)  between  Casas  Llibre,  the  Alcalde  of 

Premia,  and  Ferrer,  the  former,  in  the 

Confrontation    with    the    face  of  the  latter's  denial  of  what  he 

Alcalde.  had  said  in  his  interview  at  the  Fraterni- 

dad  Republicana,  bursts  forth  with  this 
phrase  :  "  A  man  who  denies  the  truth  as  you  do,  is  capable  of 
denying  the  light  of  the  sun  "  :  adding  to  the  statements  previously 

made  in   his  declarations,  that  Ferrer 
This  seevu  like  a  perversion     ^Iso    said    to    him    ''that  he  too   might 
of    a    probable    remark    of  ,         , ,    .  j.    j.    ^  j7    j.   i 

r-      }     .1  ^1   L  Tj  1.-       r    serve  to  captain  a  srroup,  out  that  he  was 
Ferrers — that  he  held  himself  ^  o>       /  j 

dei'oted  to  a  higlurthing  than     reserved  and  marked  out  for  other  and 

insurrection^   natnely  educa-      higher  thiflgs." 

'""*•  Finally,  in  the   fourth  (folio   461), 

with  Alvarez  Espinosa,  Ferrer  attempts 
Confrontation  with  Espi-     to  minimize  the  importance  of  the  inter- 

nosa.  view  at  Premia,  by  saying  that  it  was 

a  conversation  after  which  they  parted 
without  any  unpleasantness,  and  shaking 
hands  with  each  other;  to  which  his 
opponent  rejoins  that  there  was  un- 
For  the  reason  why  there    pleasantness  inasmuch  as  there  was  a 

was   no    confrontation    with  ,,,i  i-.j-j         ,  ^..i 

Domenech,  seep.  218.  V^O\.t%'i,  though   it  did  not  prevent  the 

parties  from  taking  leave  of  each  other 
in  a  courteous  fashion. 

And  if  the  evidential  proof  thus  points  to  Francisco  Ferrer 
Guardia  as  chief  of  the  rebellion,  documentary  proof,  in  its 
turn,  confirms  what  has  gone  before. 

He  himself  in  his  autobiography  written  in  French  and  ad- 
dressed to  Monsieur  Furnemont  (folio  191),  and  in  another 
published  by  the  Espaiia  Nueva  in  its  issue  of  June  16,  1906 
(folios  372  and  373),  presents  himself  to  us  as  a  persistent 
agitator  and  rebel ;  he  makes  a  boast  of  it,  and  of  his  share  in 
all  the  movements  which   have  occurred  in  Spain  since  1885. 


278  APPENDIX 

In  the   latter  especially,  he  draws   his  own   full-length   portrait 

in   these  words  :   "  I  cannot   conceive 
Note  the  careful  omission  of     ,.^         •  ,       .  ,  ,  t 

r         .   c-l >         /•        life   without   propaganda:   wherever  1 

reference  to  Ferrers  assertion  f     f  b  > 

that  after  a  certain  time  ''il  may  be,  in  the  street,  in  public  places, 
tie  s'occupa  plus  gulre  que  in  the  tramway,  in  the  train,  with 
d'organiser  un  systhne  type  ^yhomsoever  I  find  myself,  I  cannot 
(V ensetenetTunt  rattonahste."       ,  ,  „ 

but  try  to  make  a  convert. 

These  expressions  might  appear  a  little  vague,  inasmuch  as 
they  do  not  define  the  nature  of  the  propaganda  in  question; 

but   in   the   documents    contained    in 

The  '^Proclamation''   of    folios  374-383  they  become  quite  defi- 

1892.    See  pp.  222-227.  nite,  for  these  documents   prove  that 

Ferrer's  propaganda  is  frankly  anarchist. 

See,  if  you  have  any  doubt,  his  manuscript  proclamation  of 

1892   addressed   to   the   Congress   of  Freethinkers.      In   it  he 

invites  those   who  share  his  ideas   to 
The  Auditor  (p.  303)  de-    send  their  names    and    addresses    to 
dared  that  in  this  '^ procla-     M.    Ferrer,    Poste    Restante,   Rue   de 
matioff'  he  concealed  himself     -r     r       .^  1  -n        •  .^1  1.1. 

under  thepseudonym  of  Zero;  Lafayette,  who  Will  give  them  the 
how  are  we  to  reconcile  these  addresses  of  the  governing  Committee, 
statements?  further    suggesting    that    they    should 

write  three  times  a  month,  on  the  loth, 
20th,  and  30th,  beginning  with  the  30th  of  the  month  then  cur- 
rent, and  stating  one  or  more  of  the  following  things :  "  I  have 
one,  two,  three,  or  more  friends,  names  and  addresses  given, 
with  or  without  means  of  defence  (arms),  able  to  travel  (that  is  to 
say  able  to  pay  the  fare  to  Madrid),  willing  to  travel  (that  is  to 
say  wiUing,  but  lacking  the  means),  with  provisions  for  one, 
two,  etc.  (that  is  to  say  dynamite)."  If,  then,  in  1892,  he  is 
already  telling  his  partizans  to  address  themselves  to  him,  and  to 
let  him  know  what  munitions  of  war  they  can  command,  does 
not  this  disclose  the  organizer,  the  leader,  the  chief?  But 
there  is  more  to  come :  in  this  document,  as  in  those  which  suc- 
ceed it  on  the  fohos  mentioned,  he  already  speaks  of  the  organi- 
zation of  a  party  of  three  hundred  who  shall  follow  him,  and  be 
the  first  to  advance  to  the  battle  on  the  appointed  day,  and  he 
says,  "  We  will  seek  the  auspicious  moment,  as,  for  instance,  the 
time  of  a  strike,  or  eve  of  the  first  of  May." 


THE  TYPE-WRITTEN   DOCUMENT   270 


Do  you  not  see  a  perfect  agreement  between  this  proposition 

and  what  has  happened  here  ?    Does  it  surprise  you  that,  as  you 

have  seen,  the  Solidaridad  Obrera 
should  be  pointed  out  as  the  ally  of 
Ferrer,  in  the  foregoing  declarations  of 
several  witnesses,  when  he  himself 
writes  in  this  document :  "  We  are  in 
touch  with  the  labour  party  and  with 
other  revolutionary  forces  "  ? 

This  means  that  the  prisoner  Ferrer 
has  been,  not  for  a  day  or  for  a  year, 
but  for  many  years  past,  carrying  on 
a  propaganda  —  preparing  the  soil, 
recruiting  forces,  lying  in  wait  for  a 
favourable   opportunity,   such    as    has 

lately   presented   itself  to  him,   to  begin   putting  his  plans  in 

operation. 

That  he  saw  this  opportunity  drawing  near,  and  that  he  used 

every  effort  to  bring  it  about,  as  the  saying  goes,  is  proved  by  the 

two  type-written  circulars  (see  folios  177 

The    type-written     docw    and  1 79),  by  the  programme  (folio  1 7 8), 
ments.     See  p.  m  for  proof    ^^^    ^      ^^^        -^^g^  ^^   ^^^   ^^^^ 

if  Ferrer  had  any-        .        .  .     _    ,  .     . 


Does  the  statement  that  he 
was  in  touch  with  the  labour 
party  in  Madrid  17  years 
before,  prove  that  he  was  in 
touch,  for  revolutionary  pur- 
poses, with  the  Solidaridad 
Obrera  in  Barcelona?  Can 
it  be  in  order  to  bring  the 
Madrid  manuscript  into 
** perfect  agreement"  with  the 
events  of  Barcelona  that  the 
Prosecutor  st4pprcsses  all  al- 
lusion to  the  project  of  killing 
the  royal  family  and  the 
ministers  ? 


that,  even  if  Ferrer  had  any 
thing  to  do  with  them,  they 
were  at  least  7  years  old. 


circular  and  of  the  programme  appended 

to  folios  180-183.     The  first  circular, 

speaking  of  the  political  and  commercial 

middle  classes,  says  that  the  Clergy  and  the  Army  protect  them 

in  their  thefts  and  frauds ;  then  it  goes  on  to  say  :  "  They  exploit 

us,  they  sacrifice,  kill  and  dishonour  us, 
because  we  are  not  men,  or  do  not 
behave  as  such.  They  regard  us  as  a 
despicable  flock  of  [scabby]  sheep,  and 
they  are  in  a  measure  right,  seeing  that 
we  endure  it.  Happily,  the  time  is  at  hand  for  proving  before 
the  world  that  we  will  no  longer  be  exploited.  The  hour  of 
revolution  draws  near  ;  pass  over  the  infamous  middle  classes 
and  their  ridiculous  programmes.  Before  bej^inning  to  build,  we 
must  raze  all  ruins  to  the  ground.  If  there  is  among  the  politicians 
any  man  deserving  of  respect,  any  citizen  who  enjoys  a  just  or  an 


Note  that  this  is  written  by 
tome  one  who  is,  or  pretends 
to  be,  himself  a  workman, 
which  Ferrer  never  was. 


280  APPENDIX 

unjust  popularity,  you  will  see  how  he  will  strive  to  hold  us  back 
at  the  critical  moment,  to  extinguish  the  trains  that  are  fired,  on 
the  pretext  of  humanity  and  generous  sentiments.  But  pay  no 
heed  to  them,  pass  over  them,  kill  them  if  necessary.     [Did  they, 

think  you,  call  to  mind  the  principles 

The  sentence  in  brackets,     of    generosity   or    of   humanity   when 

and  the  word  in  brackets     Portas    was    torturing    in    Montjuich, 

above,  were  omitted  by  the    ^^hen   Polavieja  was  assassinating    in 

Prosecutor.       The     sentence     ,/r      -n         u        wr     \  .■        u- 

might  have  led  the  Court  to    Manilla,  when  Weyler  was  ventmg  his 

suspect  the  early  date  of  the    ^^ry  on  the  defenceless  victims  of  im- 

document,  molated  Cuba?]     Let  the  revolution 

come,  for  it  is  no  less  inevitable  than 
bankruptcy  j  but  do  not  leave  it  in  the  hands  of  a  middle  class  as 
odious  as  it  is  reactionary ;  and  do  not  rest  until  you  have  carried 
to  its  ultimate  conclusions  a  revolution  which,  without  you, 
would  be  at  once  shameful  and  barren." 

In  the  second  circular,  after  saying :  "  For  us,  we  desire  and 
require  to  destroy  everything,  and  we  avow  it  with  loyal  candour," 
he  adds  :  *'  Let  us  strive  for  their  redemption  and  our  own, 
until  we  convince  them  that  clericalism  and  militarism  are  the 
two  arms  of  capitalism,  the  executioner  of  mankind.  Let  us 
make  an  end  of  the  monster's  arms,  and  it  will  be  easier  to  strike 
off  its  head.     Workers,  prepare,  for  the  hour  is  at  hand."     And 

this  curious  document  ends  as  follows  : 
This  sentence,  together  with     "  Herewith  the  recipe  for  the  manufac- 
thatquotedonp.  234,  strongly     ^^^^  ^f  panclastite." 

suggests  the  handiwork  of  an  r\c  \x,  ic  v  o\    ^u 

agent  provocateur.  ^f  the  programme  (foho  178),  the 

veritable  programme   of  all   that  the 

The  rebels  effected,  or  at.    j-gbels  of  last  July  effected,  we  shall 

empe  ,  no   tng  of   le  pjo-        j    say  that  it  comprises,  among  other 

gramme  except  the  anti-cleri-  -        •'  r  ^  t3 

cal  portion  of  it,  things:    the   abolition   of  all   existing 

laws;  the  expulsion  or  extermination 
of  all  religious  orders  ;  the  demolition  of  churches ;  the  confisca- 
tion of  the  Bank  and  of  the  railways. 

It  is  to  be  carefully  noticed  that  in 

The  experts  and  the\,\>,z,    j^e  second  of  the  said  circulars,  type- 
Seep.  232. 

written  throughout,  there  are  two  cor- 
rections :  the  /  in  the  word  actos  and  the  syllable  ba  of  the  word 


"A  MERE   SUSPICION"  281 

trabajando ;  and,  when  it  was  subjected  to  the  prescribed  verifica- 
tion, the  experts  affirmed  that  the  cor- 
What  the  experts  said  was    recti ons    must    have   been    made    by 
^' might  have  been."  Ferrer,  On  account  of  the  similarity  of 

his  handwriting  in  documents  exhibited 
to  them.  The  prisoner  denies  in  his  examination  that  either  the 
documents  or  the  corrections  were  his.  But  does  it  not  strike 
you  as  peculiar  that,  though  he  could  have  proposed  in  the 
Plenario  another  examination  by  different  experts  nominated  by 
himself,  he  did  not  do  so?  Does  not  this  appear  to  show,  in 
spite  of  his  denial,  an  inplicit  admission  of  the  authenticity  of 
the  corrections  ? 

It  has  seemed  to  the  prosecution  very  surprising  that  a  man 
who  shows  himself  as  cautious  as  the  prisoner  does  in  a  letter 
addressed  to  Don  Odon  de  Buen  (folio  190):  ''Some  time  ago 
I  made  up  my  mind  no  longer  to  figure  in  any  party  :  therefore 
I  entreat  you  to  make  no  use  of  my  name,  which  must  remain 
in  obscurity ;  though  of  course  (and  of  this  I  shall  speak  to  you 
at  the  earliest  opportunity)  I  am  always  ready  to  promote  the 

coming  of  the  Republic  " — it  has  seemed 
Unless  Ferrer  had  had  the    surprising,  I  repeat,  that,  anxious  as  he 
gift  of  invisibility,  he  could    ^^g  ^^  j.gj^^jj^  j,^  obscurity,  he  should 
not    'well   have  been   uss   tn      ,  ,      ,  •         ,  r «  t     i     • 

evidence  than  he  was  "  during  ^ave  let  himself  be  seen  so  much  durmg 
the  events  of  July.''  the  events  of  July,  as  we  have  shown  to 

have  been  the  case,  thus  giving  an  oppor- 
tunity for  charges  to  be  specified  against  him.  What  motive  can 
have  constrained  him  to  change  his  behaviour  ?  Can  it  be  self- 
interest  ?  It  is  a  mere  suspicion,  nothing 
As  to  this  base  and  abso-  ^o^c  than  a  suspicion,  of  the  person  who 
luiely  groundless  insinuation,  now  addresses  you,  but  one  which  has 
seep.  203.  come  to  his  imagination  while  studying 

the  declarations  of   Don   Pablo   Reig 

, .    ,,  Cesa,  Don  Adolfo   Cesa  Moraga,  and 

Arnau     was     his]  "com- 

panion "  in  the  sense  that  he  ^o"  J^ime  Font  Alsina,  particularly 
strolled  a  fdu  yards  along  thosc  of  the  first  two,  who  assert  that 
the  street  with  him.  See  during  the  days  preceding  the  events, 
^'    '  '  I>orcnzo    Arnau,    Ferrer's    companion 

when   he   went  to  the   conference   at  Premid,  advised  them   to 


282  APPENDIX 

speculate  on  the  Stock  Exchange,  because  funds  were  going 
to  drop  three  or  four  points.  It  is  true  that  Arnau  said  that  if 
he  spoke  about  this  it  was  because  he  had  heard  rumours 
of   it    at    Barcelona.      But   there    is    another  deposition,   that 

of  Don  Alfredo  Garcia  Magallanes,  in 

This      gentleman      was    which  he  says  that  Pierre  mentioned 

''  Afagalldn"  on  p.  262.  to    him   on  August   lo   that  he   had 

heard  that  Ferrer  had  been  speculating 
on  the  Bourse.  And  as  the  official  lists  of  quotations  appended 
to  the  papers  show  a  fall  during  the  days  of  the  events,  as  com- 
pared with  the  preceding  days,  it  is  difficult,  if  we  put  two  and 
two  together,  to  escape  from  this  idea.; 

Having  thus  pointed  to  Ferrer's  guilt  as  author  of  the  crime 
of  rebellion,  and  with  the  character  of  chief,  let  us  pass  to  the 
qualifying  circumstances.  On  this  point  we  confirm  what  we 
maintained  in  our  provisional  statement,  namely,  that  all  the  cir- 
cumstances laid  down  in  the  Code  of  Military  Justice  (section  173) 
are  to  be  found  here.  Indeed,  the  perversity  of  the  prisoner 
could  not  be  greater ;  whether  in  view  of  the  objects  he  aimed  at 
in  the  rebellion,  in  which  there  was  no  question  of  a  more  or 
less  profound  political  change,  but  of  a  real  social  revolution, 
anarchist  in  its  trend,  as  appears  unmistakably  from  the  before- 
mentioned  documents  (folios  177,  178  and  179); — or  in  view 
of  his  persistent  and  inveterate  propaganda,  as  appears  from 
the  documents  (folios  374  to  383)  relating  to  the  year  1892; — 
or  in  view  of  the  hypocrisy  and  baseness  of  soul  revealed  by 

that  letter  to  Don  Oddn  de  Buen  (folio 

See  p.  250.     The  gallant     19°).  since  the  wish  to  remain  in  the 

officers,  even  while  maintain-    shade,  as  he  puts  it,  seems  to  proceed 

ing  that  their  case  is  over-     jgsg  fj-o^n  a  lack  of  ambition,  of  aspi- 

■wheliinngly    strong,    cannot  ,-  ..         cr  j      u  ..u 

J.7  ■  J  \-  ration   to   office   and    honour,   as   the 

qutie  conceal  their  lurking  sus-  _         ,  _  ' 

■ticion—or  their  resentment—    prisoner  asserts  in  his  deposition,  than 
of  its  weakness.  from  a  desire  to  reserve  to  himself  a 

sure  means  of  escape  from  the  natural 
consequences  of  his  conduct.  He  goaded  others  to  action,  while 
himself  remaining  concealed  in  that  obscurity,  which,  as  we  have 
seen,  is  so  dear  to  him. 

The  import  of  the  crime  is  immense.     One  has  only  to  reflect 


QUESTION   OF   DAMAGES  283 

that   the   rebelHon   left  this   territory  isolated  from  the  rest  of 

^   Spain,  and  from  the  rest  of  the  world 

The  cost  of  the  insurrection.     — one  has  only  to  consider   that   the 

capital  remained,  during  the  days  of  the 
tragic  week,  almost  without  light  or  provisions — in  order  to 
realize  that  the  deed  has  reverberated  through  every  depart- 
ment of  life,  from  industry  and  commerce  to  the  hfe  of  private 
domesticity. 

The  harm  which  the  crime  not  only  might  have  done,  but 
actually  and  really  did,  to  the  service  and  the  interests  of  the 
State  as  well  as  to  private  interests,  ^is  so  huge  that  it  may  be 
emphatically  and  truthfully  said  to  be  incalculable.  The  pubHc 
services  were  paralyzed  owing  to  the  damage  done  to  the  lines  of 
communication  by  rail  and  telegraph,  which  rendered  it  impossible 
to  remedy  with  the  requisite  promptitude  the  state  of  chaos 
created  by  the  rebellion.  Interests  of  State  were  doubly  injured ; 
firstly  by  the  fact  that  it  was  necessary  to  divert  to  the  repression 
of  the  rebellion  forces  whose  business  was  to  avenge  the  honour 
of  the  nation,  outraged  in  the  Riff:  secondly  by  the  great 
pecuniary  sacrifice  entailed  by  the  mobilization  of  these  forces  in 
order  to  despatch  them  to  this  district.     As  to  private  interests, 

^,      ,      ,       ,      .        ,    there  is  no  need  to  relate  what  they 

The  slaughtered  priests  of  .  •' 

/.  258,  are  perhaps  included  suffered :  louder  than  any  voice  of  ours 
under  the  term  ^'  murders" ;  is  the  VOice  of  the  lists  of  killed  and 
but  what  has  become  of  the  wounded,  resulting  either  from  the 
outraged  nuns  ?  pitched  battle  in  the  streets,  or  from  the 

murders  committed  under  its  cover,  of  the  demolished  buildings, 
of  the  aged,  the  infirm,  the  children,  who,  torn  from  their  retreats, 
were  left  unprotected  and  unsheltered  to  their  fate. 

And  when  we  say  this,  we  cannot  but  recall  the  fact  that 
during  the  rebellion,  at  the  same  time  as  the  armed  struggle,  acts 
of  incendiarism  took  place,  acts  of  pillage,  and  injury  to  railways 
and  telegraph  lines  ;  common  crimes,  all  of  them,  but  inseparable 
from  rebellion,  because  they  are  interwoven  with  it  and  directed 
towards  the  same  end,  as  has  been  laid  down  in  similar  cases  by 
the  Supreme  Council  of  the  Army  and  Navy  in  numerous  judg- 
ments, particularly  that  of  March  30,  1897.  Certain  it  is  that 
each  of  these  crimes  must  have  had  its  actual  perpetrators ;  but 


284  APPENDIX 

it  is  equally  certain  that  for  the  present  they  are  unknown  to  us, 

since    the    innumerable    prosecutions 

Not  one  of  these ''innumer-    which    have    been    instituted    against 

able"  rebels  has  been  in  any      j^g^^     individuals     have    not    yet    pro- 

way  brought  into  relation  with  i    ^         ■    -,  ^ 

the  '^author  and  chief  of  the    needed  to  judgment.     Consequently  no 

rebellion"  Other  course   is  open  except  to  abide 

by  the  purport  of  the  second  para- 
graph of  Section  242  of  the  Code  of  Military  Justice,  and  to 
declare  the  prisoner  Ferrer  Guardia,  as  principal  chief  of  the 
REBELLION,  guilty  as  an  accessory  to  those  crimes,  and  doubly 
answerable  under  criminal  and  civil  law,  and  to  assert  the  civil 
liability  for  those  crimes,  involving  the  whole  property  of  the 
prisoner,  even  though  it  be  physically  impossible  at  the  moment 
to  ascertain  the  precise  sum  at  which  we  may  fix  the  damage 
caused  by  conflagration,  pillage,  and  injury  to  lines  of  com- 
munication. 

Accordingly,  characterizing  the  action  as  the  completed 
ofifence  of  military  rebellion,  defined  in  the  third  and  fourth 
paragraphs  of  Section  237  of  the  Code  of  Military  Justice;  and 
having  proved  the  prisoner  to  be  the  author  of  the  same,  with 
the  character  of  chief,  and  with  the  concurrence  of  all  the 
aggravating  circumstances  set  forth  in  Section  173:  I  conclude 
in  the  name  of  the  King  (whom  God  preserve)  by  demanding 
against  Francisco  Ferrer  Guardia,  in  accordance  with  the  Code 
of  Military  Justice,  Section  238,  clause  i,  the  infliction  of  the 
death  penalty,  with  the  alternative,  in  case  the  penalty  is  remitted, 
of  perpetual  absolute  incapacity;  one  half  of  the  period  of 
remand  undergone  in  consequence  of  these  proceedings,  being 
credited  to  him  in  accordance  with  the  Act  of  January  17,  1901 ; 
and  demanding  that  he  should  likewise  be  adjudged  liable  for 
the  damage  and  detriment  caused  by  conflagrations,  by  pillage 
and  injury  to  the  lines  of  communication,  both  railway  and 
telegraphic,  occasioned  during  the  rebellion ;  all  his  goods,  in 
so  far  as  the  amount  of  the  damage  can  be  ascertained,  being 
applicable  to  the  discharge  of  this  civil  liability. 

The  whole  in  accordance  with  Sections  173,  188,  219,  237 
(paragraphs  3  and  4),  238  (clause  i),  and  242,  of  the  Code 
of    Military  Justice;    11,    13,    18,    53,   and    1 21-12 6    of    the 


"SUPERIOR  WISDOM"  285 

Ordinary  Penal  Code,  and  the  above-quoted  Act  of  January  17, 
1901. 

The  Council,  however,  with   superior   wisdom,  will  decide 
according  to  the  dictates  of  justice. 

Jesi5s  Marin. 

Barcelona,  October  8,  1909, 


PRONOUNCEMENT  OF  THE  ASSESSOR  TO 

THE   COUNCIL 

Don  Enrique  Gesta  y  Garcia,  Deputy  Auditor  of  War  in  the 
second  degree,  acting  as  Assessor  to  the  Ordinary  Council  of 
War  assembled  to  try  and  pass  judgment  in  the  cause  conducted 
against  Francisco  Ferrer  Guardia,  says — 

In  reality,  my  report  is  made  only  to  show  that  I  concur 
absolutely  in  the  description  of  the  facts  formulated  by  the 
Prosecutor,  as  also  in  his  attribution  of  responsibility  to  the 
prisoner  Francisco  Ferrer  Guardia,  as  author  and  chief  of 
the  rebelUon,  and  in  the  statement  of  the  penalty  whose  infliction 
the  Prosecutor  demands. 

Clear,  definite  and  precise,  the  accusation  has  yet  another 
virtue  of  no  mean  order :  it  is  the  moderation  which  the  Prose- 
cutor showed  in  confining  himself  to 

See  p.  62.     If  it  would    ^^  strict  fulfilment  of  his  duty,  and  in 

have  been  wrone  of  the  Prose-  ,         i  •        j   ^  j„  „f  >„^^^„ 

,     ,     ,       ^   ,,    j:.      ,      not  seekmg  data  or  grounds  of  respon- 
cutor  to  drag  in  the  hscuela  °  ° 

Moderna,  why  was  it  right  sibility  outside  the  actual  records.  If 
for  the  Assessor  to  do  so?  he  had  not  skilfully  steered  clear  of 

this   rock,   if    he   had  not    had  inde- 
pendence enough  to  escape  the  influ- 
As  though  half  of  the  evi-     ^^^^     ^^         vj-^,     opinion,     he     would 
dence  were  not  the  inere  record  ,  ,  ,        ,  -t  1        .1 

of  public  opinion.  perhaps   have    rendered    possible    the 

repetition  of  the  prisoner's  insinuations 
in  his  autobiography  in  French  addressed  to  M.  Furnemont 
(folio  191),  according  to  which  his  prosecution  in  the  Madrid 
trial  of  the  affair  of  the  bombs  thrown  by  Morral  was  due  to  the 
hatred  felt  by  some  religious  Order  for  his  methods  and  for  the 
teaching  of  the  Escuela  Moderna.  These  insinuations  were, 
indeed,  calumnious;  but  subsequently  to  the  arrest  and  actual 
prosecution  of  Ferrer,  they  were  repeated  by  his  partizans  and 


MUTUAL   ADMIRATION  287 

friends,  particularly  abroad,  and  had  the  result  that,  amongst 
ourselves,  certain  timorous  spirits  were  brought  to  believe  in 
something  like  the  possibility  of  a  diplomatic  intervention  in 
the  matter,  without  stopping  to  reflect  on  the  absurdity  of  such 
a  notion,  which  crumbles  to  nothing  the  moment  we  recollect 
that  our  country  is  not  a  nation  of  limited  legal  powers,  and 
consequently  not  obliged  to  submit  to  foreign  interference  in 
its  internal  affairs. 

By  this  tact,  by  this  discretion,  the  Prosecutor  has  disarmed 
the  inventors  of  fables  and  ridiculous  legends.     His  accusation, 

read  as  it  was  in  public,  deserves  even 

A  somnL>kat  unlucky  pro-    larger  publicity,  forasmuch  as,  the  more 

phecy.  public   it  is,   the    more    effectual    the 

vindication  of  the  justice  of  Spain,  and 
particularly  that  of  the  Military  Jurisdiction,  against  imputations 
of  this  nature.  The  fact  that  in  his  so  meritorious  work  he  has 
not  once  mentioned  the  Escuela  Moderna,  nor  made  the  slightest 
reference  to  its  teachings  or  its  propaganda,  will  prove  the  absolute 
rectitude  and  impartiality  of  our  Courts.  If  to-day  the  Military 
Jurisdiction  condemns  the  prisoner,  it  will  be  simply  and  exclu- 
sively because  it  will  have  found  justification  for  that  course  within 
the  limited  circle  of  the  records ;  just  as,  if  the  Civil  Jurisdiction 
acquitted  him  yesterday,  in  the  above-mentioned  case,  it  was 
because  there  did  not  appear  in  that  case  grounds  for  his  con- 
demnation. 

The  Prosecutor,  and,  before  him,  the  detailed  report  of  the 
energetic   Examining  Magistrate  who   accomplished    so    praise- 
worthy a  labour  in  accumulating  in  the 
There  is  something totuhing    Sumario    SO    many   and    such    cogent 
in  the  mutual  admiration  of  fg  ^f  ^he  prisoner's  guilt,  have  pcr- 

these   soldier-advocates.     See     ^      ,     •    j-      ^    j  .^i  ,  r  ^u- 

the  Auditor  on  the  Prosecutor    ^^^^ly  mdicatcd  the  nature  of  this  case. 

and  Assessor.  It  bears,  like  the  case  conducted  by  the 

Examining  Commandant  Lliviana,  from 
which  it  springs,  a  special  impress  of  generality  which  dis- 
tinguishes it  from  the  hundreds  of  prosecutions  instituted  in 
consequence  of  the  events  of  July ;  for  while,  in  these  last, 
the  investigation  applies  to  individual  concrete  facts,  considered 
separately  from  one  another,  in  the  case  in  which  this  Council 


288  APPENDIX 

of  War  is  now  to  pass  judgment,  the  revolution  is  investi- 
gated as  a  whole,  as  a  combination  of  a  multitude  of  facts 
so  closely  interconnected  that,  though,  from  its  chief  focus  in 
Barcelona,  it  radiated  out  to  the  country  districts  of  this  province 
and  that  of  Gerona,  where  subsidiary  foci,  derived  from  the  first, 
formed  themselves,  yet  they  never  lost  their  connection  with  that 
of  the  capital,  either  in  their  origin,  their  aim  and  methods,  or  in 
their  development.  The  segregation  of  the  present  cause  from 
that  from  which  it  springs  was  imposed  on  us  by  the  greater 
definiteness  and  importance  of  the  charges  which  crystallized 
themselves  against  the  prisoner  Ferrer,  from  the  moment  of  his 
arrest,  giving  him  a  prominence  never  attained  or  approached 
by  any  of  the   other   persons   indicted   along  with  him.     This 

demanded,   if   justice,   and    especially 
It  -was  not  the  imminent    military  justice,  was   to  fulfil  its   high 
re-assembly  of  the  Cortes,  but    (j^y  Qf  exemplariness,  a  procedure  as 
thf '■^  exemplariness"  of  mili-  .-..  •   i^  u  •l\.      ^         •    j-       i. 

•    .■      .f  .      ,1  J  J-       swift  as  might  be,  without  prejudice  to 
tary  justice,  that  called  for  o  i  r    j 

the  headlong  haste  of  the  pro-  that  complete  elucidation  of  the  facts 
cedure.  which  is  the  basis  of  the  establishment 

of  responsibility. 

The  prosecution  accurately  described  the  facts  when  it  defined 
them  as  the  crime  of  military  rebellion. 

[Here  follows  a  technical  discussion  to  show  that  the  object  of 
the  insurrection  was  not  a  political  but  a  social  revolution — a 
distinction  which  seems  to  have  been  necessary  in  order  to  justify 
the  phrase  "  military  rebellion."] 

Look  at  the  documents  appended  to  folios  374-383,  and  you 

will  perceive  that  the  manifesto  addressed  to  the   Congress  of 

_,,,„,        .    „     ^    Freethinkers    in    1892,   before    Ferrer 
The    ''  Froclamatwn"    of  ,  .      ,  .       .  ^   ,      ,     j 

1892.    See  pp.  222,  278.  engaged  in  the  organization  of  the  body 

^      ,  .     .  of  300,  contains  the  words :  "  Lone  live 

Quoted  in  the  newspapers       .  ,     .         ,  , .  ,      . »        i 

as  ^^ long  live  dynamite!"         fhe  revolution,  long  live  anarchy !    and 

in  speaking  of  this  body  and  defining 
the  information  to  be  sent  to  him  at  Paris  by  those  who  should 

rally  to  it,  one  of  the  facts  on  which  he 
footnote  fi.  22^  '  demands  to  be  informed  is  whether  they 

hsiWQ.  provisions  {which  will  fnean  dyna- 
mite),  as  appears  in  the  actual  handwriting  of  the  prisoner.     See 


THE    VILLAGERS   AGAIN  289 

in   like   manner   the   proclamations   (folios    177  and    179)   cha- 

The    type-written     docu-    ^cterized  in  detail  by  the   Prosecutor 

ments.    See  pp.  232,  279.  i"  his  indictment,  and  you  will  notice 

that,  without  speaking  of  the  form  of 
Government,  he  says  that  the  Clergy  and  the  Army  protect  the 
robbery  and  fraud  of  the  middle  classes ;  that  before  building  we 

must  pull  down ;  that  what  they  desire 

The  fact  that  Ferrer  di:-    and  need  is  wholesale  destruction.    See 

claimed  all  knowledge  of  these     finally  the  programme  (folio  178),  and 

documents  is  tactfdly  ignored,     the  passage  about  the  abolition  of  all 

existing  laws  will  enable  you  to  form  an 
idea  of  the  real  object  which  was  being  pursued. 

If  you  turn  your  attention  to  the  prisoner's  words  as  set  forth 
in  the  evidence  of  the  witnesses,  you  will  arrive  at  a  like  result. 

To  Llarch^   as   you   have  seen  in   his 
See  pp.  215,  270.  declaration,  Ferrer  says  that   the   Re- 

public is  immaterial  to  him,  that  the 
point  was  that  there  should  be  a  revolution,  and  that  a  beginning 
should  be  made  by  stirring  people  up  to  burn  churches  and 
convents.      To  the  young   men  coming   from  Barcelona  whom 

they  met  on  their  return  from  Premid, 
See  pp.  216,  270.  he    says  :    "  That's    good  !     Courage  ! 

Everything  must  be  destroyed  !  "  To 
the  Alcalde  of  the  latter  village,  at  the  time  when  he  was  inciting 
him  to  proclaim  the  Republic,  he  recalled,  as  if  it  was  his  constant 

obsession,  that  churches  and  convents 
See  pp.  216,  271.  were  being  burnt  at  Barcelona.    And  to 

r,    „        ,  ,      the  workman  Rosendo  Gudas,  while  he 

On  the  contrary^  it  is  surely 

most  surprising  that  the  ^^^  working  at  tlie  prisoner's  house,  he 
"  author  and  chief  of  the  re-  makes  the  remark  :  "  Now  is  the  time  to 
bellton"  meets  -uith  absolutely     burn  everything  !  "     Thus  it  is  not  sur- 

710    response  from   any    one  •   •         ^i     ^    •  i  • 

■whom  he  tried  to  ^^  go  J"  into  P"''"S  that  m  seekmg  support  among 
action.  Here  is  a  chief  whose    people  of  advanced  views,  never  doubt- 

orders  or  incitements  no  one     ing   that    he   WOuld    find   them    ripe   fot 

[out  of   more    than    2000     revolt,  he  encountered  a  refusal  instead 

prisoners)    can    be  found  to         f    .,  lu      •  u  r    -.^    j         l    ^1 

haveob  ed  adhesion   he  solicited,  whether 

because  they  knew  his  designs,  and 
feared  to  go  beyond  their  own  ideals,  or  because  they  did  not 


290  APPENDIX 

regard  the  opportunity  as  favourable.     Certain  it  is,  at  any  rate, 

that,   as   appears    from   the    evidence, 

A  gross  perversion  of  Ar.     Lorenzo  Ardid   ejected   him  from  the 

diiTs   evidence,   even  as    it    Casa  del  Pueblo ;  that  Iglesias  and  his 

appears  on  the  records.  friends  who  were  with  him  on  the  night 

of  July  26  at  the  office  of  El  Progreso 
refused  to  sign  the  manifesto  which  Ferrer  submitted  to  them,  as 
he  himself  told  Llarch  and  Domenech ;  and  these  two  assert  in 
their  depositions  that  Llarch  himself,  the  President  of  the  Re- 
publican Committee  of  Masnou,  opposed  the  suggestions,  and 
that  the  Alcalde  Casas  Llibre  protested,  at  the  Fraternidad 
Republicana,  against  Ferrer's  words. 

In  dealing  with  the  responsibility  of  Francisco  Ferrer  as 
AUTHOR  AND  CHIEF  of  the  rebellion,  the  Prosecutor  follows  a 
clear,  precise  method  which  allows  us  quickly  to  apprehend  the 
charges  which  lie  against  him.     He  groups  in  the  first  place  those 

which   we   may  call  general  and  less 

An  apology  for  anonymity.     Concrete,  though  not  therefore  insignifi- 

hearsay,  and  opinion.  cant ;  for,  when  we  find  a  concurrence 

in  one  and  the  same  direction  of  the 
evidence  of  so  many  witnesses,  so  different  in  social  standing  and 
in  antecedents  that,  being  absolute  strangers  to  one  another,  they 
cannot  have  come  to  any  preliminary  agreement,  the  conclusion 
is  that  a  state  of  conscience  exists,  which,  connecting  cause  and 
effect,  has  given  rise  to  a  judgment,  doubtless  capable  of  being 
rebutted  by  contrary  proof,  but  which  is  well  worth  taking  into 
consideration,  since  it  gathers,  from  the  various  grades  of  society, 
data  which  do  not  come  directly  before  the  Court,  whether  on 
account  of  a  lack  of  public  spirit,  or  of  an  excessive  attachment 
to  private  tranquillity  which  shrinks  from  the  possible  disturbance 
of  being  obliged  to  appear  once  and  again  before  the  Judge,  or, 

worse   still,   on    account    of    culpable 

T^, ,,.  .  .       cowardice  in  face  of  possible  reprisals 

Yet  this  same  Assessor  in-  ^  ,        ^ 

dignantly  denies,  on  the  next  on  the  part  of  allies  and  relatives  of  the 
page,  that  cTiy  of  the  evidence  prisoners — data,  however,  which  may 
is  anonymous.  without  inconvenience  be  hinted  to  a 

friend  under  the  safeguard  of  secrecy. 
Next,  the  Prosecutor  follows  the  prisoner  day  by  day,  accom- 


ATTACKING  THE  DEFENDER    291 

panying  his  account  of  each  day  with  abundant  proof  of  the 
felonious  acts  which  place  him  in  the  position  of  chief,  leader, 
organizer,  and  promoter  of  the  events  of  July,  in  accordance  with 
the  accurate  definition  of  the  word  "  chief,"  which  had  been 
framed  at  the  outset.  And  we  are  constrained  to  acknowledge 
that  such  complete  proof  must  carry  conviction  even  to  the  mind 
most  strongly  prejudiced  in  the  prisoner's  favour.  All  this  is 
additionally  established,  although  that  was  unnecessary,  by  the 
documentary  evidence  put  in,  the  value  of  which  is  indisputable, 

inasmuch  as  it  has  not  been  impugned 
An  amazing  assertion.         by  the  prisoner,  who  in  his  examination 

confines  himself  to  saying,  so  far  as  con- 
cerns the  documents  in  folios  374-383,  that  they  are  of  very 
remote  date,  and  without  importance  in  the  present  case ;  and, 
so  far  as  concerns  those  in  folios  177,  178,  and  179,  that  they  are 
not  his  work,  without,  however,  producing  any  evidence  to  rebut 
the  identification  effected  by  experts  on  the  corrections  of  the 
programme  (folio  178).  Such  evidence  he  had  the  opportunity 
of  putting  in  at  the  time  of  the  reading  of  the  indictment ;  and 
the  fact  that  he  did  not  do  so  is  tantamount,  as  the  Prosecutor 
says,  to  an  admission  of  authenticity. 

The  concurrence  of  all  the  aggravating  circumstances  indicated 
in  Section  173  of  the  Code  of  Military  Justice  must  have  been 
painful  for  the  Prosecutor  to  set  forth,  as  it  is  for  the  undersigned. 
But  neither  he  nor  I  can  avert  our  eyes  from  reality,  or  fail  in 
our  duty  by  any  arbitrary  condonation. 

[Here  follow  some  paragraphs  of  purely  technical  discus- 
sion.] 

Turning  now  to  the  written  address  of  the  prisoner's  Defender, 
we  find  him  beginning  by  saying  that  every  possible  anonymous 

denunciation  which  could  prejudice  his 
See/>/>.  195,  290.  client  has  been  included  in  the  prose- 

cution. This  assertion  is  absolutely 
inaccurate,  and  to  convince  oneself  of  this  it  is  only  necessary 
to  glance  through  the  records  of  the  case ;  they  do  not  contain 
a  single  denunciation  nor  a  single  anonymous  writing;  the 
declarations  of  the  witnesses  are  neither  the  one  nor  ihe 
other. 


292  APPENDIX 

The  Defender  falls  into  another  inaccuracy :   I  speak  of  his 

assertion  that  all  Ferrer's  enemies  had 

.,,  ,  •  7   „^  .^      given  evidence  against  him.     The  least 

All  was  certainly  an  ex-      =>  = 

aggeration—some  had  to  be  he  could  have  done,  if  his  assertion 
left  to  sit  in  judgment  on  were  not  to  be  treated  as  wholly 
^^"^'  gratuitous,  would  have  been  to  indicate 

one  by  one  who  these  enemies  were, 
and  even  to  have  their  testimony  rejected  by  proving  their 
enmity.  By  taking  neither  course,  he  justifies  us  not  only  in 
disregarding  his  assertion,  but  also  in  deprecating  a  method  of 
defence  intended  solely  and  exclusively  to  appeal  to  the  gallery, 
and  unpermissible  as  a  weapon  of  bad  alloy. 

And  as  for  the  fact  that  Soledad  Villafranca  and  the  other 

signatories  of  the  letter  contained  in  the 
On  this  argument,  see  pp.  records,  addressed  to  the  Examining 
i6o,  189.  In  any  case,  the  Commandant,  were  not  summoned  to 
exiles  were  not  learned  in  gjve  evidence,  does  this  Honourable 
military  law,  and  could  not  ^^^^^  believe  that,  either  for  Ferrer 
reasonably  doubt  that  a  Court  .  ,         .  ... 

desirous  of  learning  the  truth  or  for  any  one  else.  It  was  possible 
would  call  for  their  ez'idence  to  override  the  law  ?  Had  not  these 
at  the  proper  time.  persons  a  term  of  28  days,  before  the 

case  reached  the  Plenario  stage,  which 
they  might  have  turned  to  better  account  ? 

And  as  for  the  complaint  that  they  had  been  deported  in 
order  that  they  should  not  give  evidence,  this  is  another  assertion 

which  ought  to  have  been  proved,  by 

The  force  of  this  argument     showing   that    their    deportation    took 

is  not  apparent.  ^^^^^  ^^  ^  ^^^^  ^f^g^  ^^n^  preliminary 

examination    (Sumario)    opened.     But 

even   if    this    had    been   the   case,    it 

If  it  could  have  been-why     would  Still  not  have  proved  that  such 

was  it  not  ?  was    the   intention    of    the   authorities 

who  deported  them,  since,  even  in 
their  absence,  their  evidence  could  have  been  taken  by  commis- 
sion. 

As  regards  the  foreign  witnesses,  the  Defender  himself  lets  us 
see  how  rightly  the  judicial  authorities  acted  in  refusing  this 
evidence,  for  if  the  information  these  witnesses  had  to  give  us 


REACTIONARY  ELEMENTS        293 


As  a  great  part  of  the 
evidence  concerned  Ferrer's 
opinio?is,  why  should  not  evi- 
dence on  the  same  point  have 
been  accepted  from  abroad  1 
Seep.  1^6  for  the  evidence  of 
an  ^''unexceptionable " luitness 
who  "  did  not  pretend  to  have 
been  here  at  the  time  of  the 
events'^ 


referred  to  Ferrer's  ideas,  projects  and  conduct,  their  declarations, 

even  supposing  them  dispassionate  and 
exact,  would  have  been  quite  useless, 
seeing  that  they  reside  abroad,  and  do 
not  pretend  to  have  been  here  at  the 
time  of  the  events,  and  could  conse- 
quently throw  no  light  upon  those 
events,  the  sole  subject-matter  of  these 
proceedings. 

As   to   the   remarks   made   by  the 
Defender   about    the   reactionary   ele- 
ments and    the    conservative    classes,  they  should  have   been 
addressed    to    these    classes    themselves,   not    the    Council    of 

War.  But  his  assertion  that  they  may 
have  had  an  influence  on  the  case 
cannot  be  allowed  to  pass  uncontested ; 
for  in  these  proceedings  no  reference 
at  all  has  been  made  to  the  Escuela 
Moderna  or  to  its  teaching,  and  the 
Prosecutor  does  not  once  allude  to  it. 

If  the  Defender  thought  that  the 
sentence  passed  in  the  case  of  Morral's 
bomb  ought  to  have  been  added  to  the 
present  record,  why  did  he  not  demand  it  at  the  reading  of  the 
indictment?  However,  even  if  this  had  been  done,  it  would  not 
have  prevented  us  from  drawing  the  appropriate  inferences  from 
the  documents  lodged  in  this  case,  as  a  result  of  the  various 
searches  carried  out  at  the  prisoner's  house,  since  the  plea  of  the 
chose  jugee  applies  only  to  the  particular  crime  on  which  judgment 
has  been  passed,  and  has  no  bearing  upon  other  crimes,  to  which 
the  judgment  did  not  extend,  and,  in  the  present  case,  could  not 
possibly  extend,  seeing  that  the  crime  is  of  later  date.  That 
judgment  may  prove  that  Ferrer  took  no  part  in  Morral's  attempt ; 
but  it  gives  no  patent  of  legality  to  the  documents,  especially  as 
the  Defender  does  not  venture  to  assert  that  they  were  ever 
submitted  to  the  Court  at  Madrid. 

It  is  not  surjjrising  that  the  Defender  should  complain  of  the 
conduct  of  the  radical  party,  since,  that  party  having  left  his  client 


Seep.  165. 


Except  by  the  Assessor 
himself  and  by  the  Prosecutor 
of  the  Supreme  Court,  and 
by  whoever  was  responsible  for 
the  flooding  of  the  press  with 
garbled  extracts  f7'om  Ferrer's 
publications. 


294  APPENDIX 

isolated,  as  is  shown  by  the  declarations  of  Domenech  and 
especially  of  Lla?rh,  we  need  not  wonder  that  it  has  incurred  his 
(Ferrer's)  antipathy,  both  because  it  failed  to  second  his  plans, 
and  because,  by  that  isolation,  it  enabled  judicial  action  success- 
fully to  accomplish  its  task. 

The  Defender  says  that  he  holds  at  the  disposal  of  the  Court 
documents  proving  his  client's  innocence ;  but  what  is  certain  is 

that  he  has  not  put  them  in,  and  that 

Which  may  possibly  have    ^he  Council  of  War  (I  am  sure)  would 

lce}t  the  reason  why  he  did    not  have   admitted   them.     The  Code 

not  put  them  in.  q{  Military  Justice  fixes  a  time  at  which 

the  prisoner's  representative  may  bring 
forward  what  evidence  he  thinks  relevant;  that  time  is  at  the 
reading  of  the  indictment :  then  it  was  that  the  Defender  should 
have  demanded  the  inclusion  of  those  documents  in  the  record  ; 
if  he  did  not,  it  is  because  he  had  not  much  confidence  in  their 
efficacy. 

Again,  the  Defender  asserts  that  we  have  refused  to  listen  to 
the  opinions  of  philosophers,  and  that  we  have  given   ear    to 

suborned  witnesses^  such  as  Esmolet  and 
Who  these  witnesses  were  I    Ma^iqiiet,     He  does  not  say  by  whom 
do7iot  know.  Doubtless  their    ^^gy  ^gj-e  suborned :  and  with  the  same 
evidence  dropped  otit  precisely       •   ,     i       i         ,  ,  , 

because   it   was    manifestly    "S^^  ^e  has  to  assume  them  subomed 
corrupt.  by  whomsoever  he  pleases,  we  on  our 

side  might  assume  them  suborned  by 
the  prisoner.  But  even  here  he  is  in  error;  review  the  case, 
and  you  will  see  that  neither  of  these  two  persons  has  given 
evidence. 

As  to  the  value  of  the  declarations  of  the  witnesses,  the 
Defender  brings  forward  no  reasonable  argument  which  can  lessen 
their  cumulative  force ;  for  what  he  says  on  this  point,  he  does 
not  prove,  and  consequently  it  can  be  regarded  as  no  more 
than  an  idle  ebullition,  to  be  judged  by  the  tone  of  his  whole 
address. 

Regarding  the  main  point  at  issue — was  Ferrer  the  chief  of 
the  rebellion  ? — although  I  consider  it  sufficiently  proved  by  the 
Prosecutor,  I  am  going  to  emphasize  it  anew  in  order  to  refute 
the  defence. 


-SEARCHING  "   AND     -GOADING"    295 

Observe,  first  of  all,  that  the  witness  Don  Francisco  de  Paula 
CoUdefons   (folio  492)  tells  you  that  he  saw  him  captaining  a 

group   in  the  Rambla  in  front  of  the 

The    Catholic   journalist    Liceo,  on  the  27th,  and  that  the  fact  of 

again.    See  pp.  2\i,  26Z.         there  being  only  one  witness  on  this 

point  does  not  invalidate  his  testimony, 
because  the  Courts  are  bound  by  no  such  rule  in  their  apprecia- 
tion of  evidence.  In  fact,  the  veracity  of  the  witness  can  be 
deduced  from  his  own  words.  He  did  not  know  Ferrer  per- 
sonally ;  but  when  he  saw  that  the  people  gathered  in  that  place 

indicated  him  as  being  Ferrer  Guardia, 
Colldefons  does  not  allege    jj  caused  him  to  look  at  him,  and  that 
any  ' '  tannble  act  of  leader-      ,  ,  .1,1, 

ship;^  and  he  vjas  never  con-     ^o  such  purpose  that  he  subsequently 

fronted  witii  Ferrer  or  in  any    identified  him  three  times,  in  a  circle 
-way  cross-examined  as  to  the    of  prisoners,  as  appears  on  folio  493. 

grounds  for  his   assumption      r^^^^   ^^^^^    ^^^^    ^^    ^j^^^^      ^^^^    ^ 
of    (the    supposed)    Ferrers  ■' 

"captaincy."  tangible  act  of  leadership  {jefatura): 

the  captaining  of  a  group,  and  appear- 
ing as  the  commander,  superior,  or  the  head  of  the  same,  direct- 
ing the  others. 

That  he  sought  people  out,  and  goaded  others  on,  is  proved 
by  the  declarations  of  Domenech,  Llarch^  Casas,  and  Alvarez 

Espinosa.      The    first  two   show  him 

1/  he  "sought  out"  and    searching  i)/// people  prepared  to  follow 

^\qoaded-  these  virtuous  citi-     j^j^^  ^j^^^^g  ^is  visits  tO  the  office  of  ^/ 

zcnSf  it  was   to    no  purpose  .  •   t         /■    , 

■whatever.  Progreso  durmg  the  night  of  the  26th  : 

searching  out  similar  auxiliaries  in  the 
person  of  Llarch  himself  and  of  the  Alcalde  Casas  Llibre ;  and 
the  last  two,  with  many  other  witnesses,  confirm  the  fact  that  he 
sought  Old  and  goaded  on  the  Alcalde  of  Premid,  urging  him  to 

proclaim  the  Republic  from  his  Town 

The  burning  of  the  churches,      jr    \\ 
etc.,  was  practically  over  before 

he  is  alleged  to  have  uttered  As  to  his  pointing  the  aims  of  the 

these  sentiments.     Not   one    rebellion,  besides   what   appears   from 

genuine  case  cf  incendiarism      j^c   documents   in   folios    1 77,    I  78,  and 
even    purports   to   have   been  ,  ,  , ,        , 

traced  to  his  incitement.  ^79.    observe    that,     to     Llarch    as    to 

Casas  Llibre,  he  says  that  not  only  must 
the  Republic  be  proclaimed,  but  that  churches  and  convents  must 


296  APPENDIX 

be  burnt ;  and  if  you  compare  these  words  with  what  happened 
during  the  rebeUion,  you  will  see  that  the  Republic,  indeed, 
was  not  proclaimed,  but  that  numerous  convents  and  churches 
were  committed  to  fire  and  pillage. 

That  he  furnished  means  for  the  rebellion,  is  proved  to  you, 
not  only  by  the  appearance  at  Masnou  and  Premi^  of  those  bands 

mentioned  by  several  witnesses,  but  by 

Even  if  true,  what  has  this     ^^e  Occurrences  in  the  former  of  those 

to    do    -with    ^'furnishing    places,  where  a  person  harangued  the 

^^"■"■s"'^  multitude  in  the  name  of  Ferrer,  and 

by  the  declarations  of  the  Colonel  and 

Captain-Adjutant  of  the  Dragoons  of  Santiago.     The  Defender 

ridicules  this  evidence,  and  attempts  to  invalidate  the  declarations 

™,      „  .     ,  ,       of  these  witnesses,  because  they  did  not 

2  he  officers  are  stated  (p.  ■' 

274)  aetually  to  have  arrested  arrest  the  persons  whom  they  searched 

these  persons ;  why  then  could  and  found  in  possession  of  revolvers, 

they  not  he  produced?    The  jn  Order  that  they  might  identify  Ferrer. 

Prosecutor  and  the  Assessor  -d^^l-         l-i       -_^^  i- 

..r.ti,  .  V  <<vv       »  But  this,  which  at  first  seems  much,  is 

use  the  same  word,  *'detener";  '  ' 

but  the  one  says  that  the  offi-    nothing,  if  you   look   into   it  a  little. 

ccrs  did,  and  the  other  that    Bear  in  mind  that  the  Colonel  and  the 

they    did    not,    arrest   the    Captain  were  not  aware  of  the  import- 
revolver-men.  ...  .  .,  ,      , 

ance  of  this  point  until,  at  the  barracks 

of  their  regiment,  they  undertook  the  task  of  interrogating  the 

soldiers  who  had  been  on  duty  together  at  the  Plaza  Antonio 

Lopez  on  the  evening  of  July  26,  and  these  soldiers  spoke  of  a 

gentleman  in  a  blue  suit  and  a  straw  hat.     Now  this  inquiry  took 

place  and  these  declarations  were  made  on  September  25  :  how 

then  could  the  officers  have  hoped  to  find  the  individuals  whom 

they  had  searched  on  July  26  ? 

For  the  reasons  above  set  forth,  and  to  sum  up,  the  Assessor 

concludes  by  counselling  the  Court — 

1.  To  declare  that  the  facts  investigated  in  this  case  con- 
stitute the  completed  crime  of  military  rebellion  defined  in  Section 
237  (paragraphs  3  and  4)  of  the  Code  of  Military  Justice. 

2.  To  hold  guilty  of  this  crime,  in  the  character  of  author 
AND  CHIEF  of  the  rebclUon,  the  prisoner  Francisco  Ferrer 
Guardia,  with  all  the  aggravating  circumstances  set  forth  in 
Section  173  of  the  said  Code. 


EXPLICIT   ASSESSOR  297 

3.  To  inflict  upon  him,  in  accordance  with  Section  238 
(Clause  i)  of  the  said  code,  the  penalty  of  death. 

[Here  follows  a  repetition  of  the  concluding  paragraphs  of  the 
Prosecutor's  allocution.] 

Enrique  Gesta  y  Garcia 
Barcelona,  October  9,  1909. 


SENTENCE 

In  Barcelona,  on  October  9,  1909,  the  ordinary  Council  of 
War  of  the  station  having  assembled  to  try  and  pass  judg- 
ment in  this  cause ;  the  Examining  Magistrate  having  reported 
the  result  of  his  investigation;  the  accused  being  present;  the 
Prosecutor's  presentment  and  the  defence  having  been  heard; 
and  in  accord  with  the  pronouncement  of  the  Assessor;  the 
Council  of  War  unanimously  declares — 

That  the  facts  investigated  in  this  case  constitute  the  com- 
pleted crime  of  military  rebellion,  defined  in  Section  237 
(paragraphs  3  and  4)  of  the  Code  of  Military  Justice  : 

Considers  the  prisoner  Francisco  Ferrer  Guardia  responsible 
for  the  same,  in  the  character  of  author  and  chief  of  the 
rebellion,  with  the  aggravating  circumstances  set  forth  in 
Section  173  of  the  said  Code  : 

And,  in  virtue  of  the  same,  imposes  on  him,  in  accordance 
with  Section  238,  clause  i,  the  penalty  of  death,  with  the  alter- 
native, in  case  the  penalty  is  remitted,  of  perpetual  absolute 
incapacity ;  condemning  him  also  to  make  compensation  for  all 
the  damage  and  detriment  caused  by  the  conflagrations,  by 
pillage,  and  by  injury  to  the  lines  of  communication,  by  rail  and 
telegraph,  occasioned  during  the  rebellion;  all  the  goods  of 
Ferrer  Guardia,  until  the  amount  of  the  damage  can  be  ascertained, 
being  held  applicable  to  the  discharge  of  this  civil  liability  ;  and 
declaring  that,  in  the  aforesaid  case  of  remission  of  the  death 
penalty,  one-half  of  the  period  of  preventive  imprisonment 
undergone  in  consequence  of  these  proceedings  shall  be  credited 
to  him. 

The  whole  in  accordance  with  Sections  173,  188,  219,  237 


SENTENCE  299 

(paragraphs  3  and  4),  238  (Clause  i),  and  242  of  the  Code  of 
Military  Justice;  ii,  13,  18  to  21,  53, 121  to  128  of  the  ordinary 
Penal  Code ;  the  concordant  sections  of  both  Codes,  and  the 
Law  of  January  17,  1901. — Eduardo  de  Aguirre. — Pom- 
peyo  Martf. — Sebastian  Carreras. — Marcelino  Diaz. — Manuel  de 
Llanos. — Aniceto  Garcia. — Julio  Lopez. 


PRONOUNCEMENT  OF  THE  AUDITOR- 
GENERAL  OF  THE  4TH   DISTRICT 

Your  Excellency, 

[Here  follows  a  paragraph  reciting  the  terms  of  the  sentence,] 

The  Auditor  considers  it  indispensable  to  give,  at  the  outset 
of  this  pronouncement,  a  biography  of  the  prisoner  Ferrer  Guard ia 
as  a  revolutionary,  deduced  from  the  letters  and  documents  which 
make  up  the  fifty  files  seized  by  the  police  during  the  second  of 
the  searches  carried  out  at  Mas  Germinal. 

The  earliest  document  among  them  is  a  letter  dated  June  22, 
1880  (file  14),  which  refers  to  the  mission  then  entrusted  to 
the  prisoner  by  Don  Manuel  Ruiz  Zorrilla,  at  that  time  a 
refugee  at  Geneva,  of  introducing  into  Spain  the  correspondence 
which  the  latter  maintained  with  his  friends,  and  also  the  mani- 
festoes, commissions,  and  packets  which  were  confided  to  him, 
and  which  Ferrer  busied  himself  in  forwarding  to  their  destination. 
Ferrer  was  then  an  employee  of  the  Madrid,  Saragossa,  and 
Alicante  Railway  Company,  and,  as  ticket-inspector,  made  the 
journey  from  the  French  frontier  to  Barcelona. 

He  was  also  entrusted  with  the  management  of  certain  matters 
in  the  revolutionary  movement  which  at  that  time  was  preparing 
at  Santa  Coloma  de  Farn^s;  and  the  prisoner  worked  with  so 
much  intelligence,  interest,  and  zeal  for  the  republican  cause 
that  Ruiz  Zorrilla  regarded  him  as  one  of  his  best,  most  faithful, 
and  most  intelligent  friends.  He  says  to  him  in  various  letters 
(files  14  and  26)  that,  with  a  few  more  men  like  him,  they  would 

already  be  in  Madrid,  and  the  Republic 
This  bears  out  Ferrer's  own     ^^^jj^j  j^ave  triumphed.   Ferrer  went  on 
statement  that  his  mieration      ...  -,    -.r  or.  i 

to  Paris  was  voluntary.  1"  ^his  way  until  May  19,   1885,  when 

he  resigned  his  employment  and  settled 
in  Paris.   This  decision  was  referable  to  the  rising  of  Santa  Coloma, 


"  ZERO  '  301 

in  which  he  took  some  share,  to  conjugal  difficulties  which  led 
to  his  separation  from  his  wife,  who  fired  two  shots  at  him  (file 

26,  letters  of  May  27),  and  to  a  sup- 
Seep,  5.  posed  robbery  committed  on  the  Gerona 

line,  the  victim  being  a  priest  who  was 
the  bearer  of  some  money  (file  40,  sheet  167). 

Under  the  patronage  of  Zorrilla  and  the  colony  of  Spanish 
refugees,  he  set  up  a  wine-shop  at  Paris,  and  engaged  in  giving 
lessons  and  in  working  energetically  for  the  cause  of  revolution. 
He  maintained  with  various  republican  personages  an  active  cor- 
respondence, which  makes  up  files  15,  16,  i6a,  i6b,  i6c,  i6d, 
and  26.  It  is  to  be  observed  that  the  fieriest  and  most  impatient 
addressed  themselves  to  Ferrer,  with  a  view  to  influencing, 
through  him,  the  mind  of  Ruiz  Zorrilla,  in  order  that,  without 
embarking  on  any  cabals,  compromises,  or  amalgamations  with 
republicans  of  other  shades,  and  without  hoping  for  anything 
from  evolution,  they  might  frankly  and  resolutely  march  on  to 
revolution. 

It  is  to  be  remarked  that  from  the  month  of  March,  1883,  the 
bulk  of  the  letters  received  by  Ferrer  were  not  addressed  to  him 
in  his  own  name,  but  in  that  of  Zero,  which  is  the  pseudonym  and 
countersign  he  had  assumed  for  the  work  of  conspiracy.  This 
figure  and  name  he  retained  until  the  death  of  Zorrilla,  and  so 

he  signed  the  famous  manifesto  of  the 
The  suggestion  that  in  this  ^^.^j^h  has  been  published  in  the 

document    he    concealed    his  . 

name  is  clearly  false,  if  the    newspapers.     It  IS  a  symbolic   name, 

Prosecutor'sversionofit,  and    and  Constitutes  in  itself  a  very  salient 
the  version  published  in  the    trait   in  Ferrer's  personality  as  a  con- 

most  advanced — he  wants  to  march  in 

The  prosecution  here  pur-  f^Q^t  of  Number  I ;   but  at  the  same 

suet  its  established  policy  of  .         ,         .  ,        ,  . 

grossly  exaggerating  Ferrer's  t>me  he  wishes  his  name  not  to  appear; 

influence,  while  making  out  he   aspires    to    obliterate    himself,   to 

that  it  was  surreptitious  and  \sQxV.  in  the  shade ;  and  for  that  reason, 

^^^^^raneau.     Hut  see  next  j^   ^^-^^^   ^f  j^j^  j^^^j^^  1^^^^  ^^^  ^f  ^^^ 

most  revolutionary  men   in   Spain,  he 
has  never  been  chief.     And  when  Don  Odon  de  Buen,  on  the 


302 


APPENDIX 


occasion  of  a  celebrated  meeting  with  a  view  to  inducing  all  the 
sections  of  the  republican  party  to  remain  united  under  the  leader- 
ship of  Salmeron,  solicited  Ferrer's  permission  for  his  signature 
to  appear  upon   the   summons   to   this  meeeting,  the   prisoner 

refused  (letter  of  April  8, 1903),  claimed 
his  freedom  of  action  to  carry  on  his 
work  in  obscurity,  and  expressed  his 
unalterable  decision  to  appear  at  the 
head  of  no  political  party. 

Thus  Ferrer  continued  his   never- 


This  letter,  of  course,  was 
written  long  after  Ferrer  had 
given  up  active  political  work. 
Observe  that  the  text  is  7iot 
quoted.  It  is  most  improbable 
that  either  Ferrer  or  Dr. 
Odon  de  Buen  made  any 
reference  to  his  appearing  '•'■at 
the  head"  of  any  political 
party. 


ending   revolutionary   labours    at    the 


side  of  Ruiz  Zorrilla,  whose  affection 

he  so  far  succeeded  in  conciHating  as 

to  become  his  secretary ;  and  he  took 

a  hand  in  the  preparation  of  all  the  political  disturbances  of  a 

republican   character   which  took  place  in  Spain,  from  that  of 

Asencio  Vega  at  Badajoz  to  that  of  Captain  Casero  in  Madrid. 

When  the  year  1892  came,  Ferrer  obtained  the  right  to  repre- 
sent various  republican,  rationalist  and  socialist  centres,  in  Spain 

and  abroad,  and  as  delegate  of  these 
organizations  attended  the  Congress 
of  Free  Thought  held  in  Madrid.  At 
that  Congress  the  personality  of  Ferrer 
as  standard-bearer  of  the  Revolution 
came  into  singular  prominence,  after 
a  violent  speech  on  his  part,  which, 
written  in  Spanish  and  in  French,  was 
widely  disseminated. 

At  this  Congress,  Ferrer  made  the 
acquaintance  of  Lerroux,  then  editor  in 
charge  of  the  section  "  Politics  of  the  Day  "  in  El  Fats,  and, 
discerning  in  the  young  journalist  a  revolutionary  temperament 
similar  to  his  own,  he  contracted  with  him  a  speedy  and  fraternal 
friendship,  which  is  depicted  in  Lerroux's  letters  composing 
file  No.  2 — a  friendship  and  political  understanding  which  has 
lasted  until  a  very  recent  date,  for  in  Ferrer's  last  letter,  of  June 
24,  1908,  packet  No.  12,  written  at  Amelie-les-Bains,  on  the 
occasion  of  a  visit  to  that  establishment  made  by  Ferrer,  Soledad, 


What  becomes  of  the  pre- 
tence that  he  always  "  aspired 
to  obliterate  himself,  to  work 
in  the  shade"?  The  truth 
is  that  this  pretence  is  founded 
on  the  usual  disregard  of 
chronology.  After  Ferrer  had 
abandoned  politics,  he  fiatu- 
rally  did  not  want  to  figure 
prominently  on  the  political 
platform. 


FERRER   AND   LERROUX  303 

Malato  and  Margarita,  Anselmo  Lorenzo,  and  other  foreign 
anarchists  whose  names  are  not  given  (see  Lorenzo's  letter  of 
July  21,  1908,  packet  12),  Ferrer  invited  Lerroux,  with 
affectionate  insistence,  to  send  his  wife  and  son  to  the  French 
watering-place,  thinking  that  a  stay  in  that  place  would  be  far 
more  agreeable  to  them  than  a  visit  to  the  house  at  Mongat, 
which  he  had  previously  placed  at  the  disposal  of  the  Lerroux 
family.  To  this  ofifer  Lerroux  replied  on  June  29,  thanking  him 
for  the  invitation,  and  saying  that  he  was  forwarding  the  letter  to 
his  wife,  leaving  her  the  choice  of  accepting,  and  asking  her  to 
address  her  reply  to  Ferrer  direct  (packet  12.) 

Ferrer  put  Lerroux  in  communication  with  Ruiz  Zorrilla,  and 
although  both  accepted  the  latter's  authority,  because  he  was  then 
the  republican  leader  who  was  advancing  towards  revolution, 
neither  was  satisfied  with  the  direction  imposed  upon  the  party. 
The  proof  of  this  lies  in  the  fact  that  Ferrer  considered  as 
colourless  and  weak  the  manifesto  or  proclamation  of  Ruiz 
Zorrilla  which  the  prisoner  had  signed  in  his  capacity  as  Secretary 
(folio  376),  holding  that,  although  very  advanced,  it  confined 
itself  to  political  revolution,  whereas  the  two  friends  aspired  to 
social  revolution.  Wherefore  they  drew  up  on  their  own  account 
the  circular  of  folio  374,  in  which  is  inserted  Lerroux's  manifesto 
"  to  Republicans  of  courage,"  energetically  inciting  to  revolution 
and  to  the  formation  of  the  group  of  300  men  ready  to  give  their 

lives  for  it;    Ferrer  appearing  at   the 
See  pp.  222,  278.  head  of  the  300,  but  under  the  figure 

of  Zero,  the  name  with  which  he  signed 
the  circular  proclamation.  It  was  this  group  which,  during  the 
interval  between  the  year  1892  and  the  death  of  Ruiz  Zorrilla, 
fed  the  flame  of  conspiracy  among  the  advanced  sections  of  the 
republican  party,  its  members  signing  their  letters  with  the 
number  which  each  had  assumed ;  the  list  of  which  was  kept  by 
Ferrer,  whose  duty  it  was  to  supply  the  needful  information  to 
the  chief,  when  he  was  in  doubt  about  the  identity  of  the  person 
represented  by  No.  20  or  No.  132  with  which  this  or  that  letter 
was  signed. 

On  the  death  of  Ruiz  Zorrilla,  when  the  revolutionaries  had  to 
seek  another  leader,  the  prisoner  addressed  himself  to  Lerroux 


304  APPENDIX 

proposing  that  he  should  accept  the  command  which  he  offered 
him  with  flattering  expressions,  in  the  letter  appended  to  folios  i88 
and  189.  But  Lerroux,  for  the  moment,  declined  the  honour,  in 
the  letter  of  foUos  390  and  391,  although  he  fully  agreed  with 
Ferrer  that  it  was  necessary  to  create  revolutionaries,  and  to 
convince  the  people  of  the  possibility  of  living  without  Law, 
without  Government,  without  God,  or  anything  at  all. 

Seeing  that  the  years  slipped  away  without  the  triumph  of  the 
desired  revolution,  taking  a  lesson  from  the  experience  that  the 
insurrectionary  movements  of  Santa  Coloma,  of  Badajoz,  of 
Villacampa,  of  Casero,  of  Mangado  (in  all  of  which  he  apparently 
had  some  share),  were  so  many  fiascos,  and  convinced  that  the 

revolution  of  his  dreams  would  never 

Here  the  Auditor  appears    triumph  by  such  measures,  Ferrer  com- 

to  accept  without  question  the        1   ^  1       1  ■, ,  ■  -,-,      , 

sincerity  of  Ferrer^s  belief  in     P^^^^^^  changed  his  COUrse.     He  thence- 

the  necessity  for  education.         forward  believed  that  in  Spain  it  was 

useless  to  foment  revolutions,  since  the 

first    and   chief   thing    to   do   was   to 

To   say    nothing  of  the    Create   revolutionaries  :  to   which   end 

fact  that  the  mention  of  ''■a    it  was  essential  to  educate  the  young, 

general  strike  or  the  May     extirpating  from  their  brains  the  idea 

Day  restival     occurs  tn  the        r    A    :3        e 

'^ Proclamation'^  of  1892,  ^f  God,  of  religion,  of  property,  of 
long    anterior    to    Ferrer's    the   family,   freeing   them   from   every 

change  of  heart,  can  the  bond  which  could  impede  their  move- 
Auditor    be   sincere    m    his  ,  1      ^ 

ridiculous  assumption  that  "^^"^''  ^"^  ^^^^n  once  they  were  thus 
Ferrer  supposed  that  he  could  prepared,  awaiting  the  first  opportunity, 
in  6  or  8  years  create  the  such  as  a  general  Strike,  the  May  Day 
educated  populace    without    fgg^i^^i    ^^  ^ther  fitting   conjunc- 

which  he  held  revolution  to  ,  ,      ,  o  j 

be  useless?  *^^^  ^°  launch  them  upon   the  streets 

in  order   to  demolish  everything  that 
exists,  and  to  bring  about  a  social  revolution  (file  15). 

The  enterprise  was  arduous  and  laborious;  but  to  it  the 
prisoner  devoted  all  his  indefatigable  activity ;  and,  the  foremost 
need  being  money,  he  undertook  the  conquest  of  one  of  his  lady 

pupils,  hoping   that  in  time   he  would 

So    the   Auditor    always    succeed  in  obtaining  from  her  the  funds 

spdls  Mile.  Meunier's  name,      necessary  to   realize  his  ideal.      That 

pupil    was    Mile.    Ernestine    Meunie, 


THE  MEUNIER  EPISODE 


305 


We  owe  sincere  thanks  to 
the  Auditor  for  quoting  this 
letter.  Without  it  there  might 
have  been  some  difficulty  in 
rebutting  the  assertion  that 
Ferrer  deceived  his  benefactress 
as  to  the  nature  of  his  vietcs. 
See  p.  26. 


Catholic,  Apostolic,  and  all  the  rest  as  Ferrer  says  in  his  letter  of 
September  20, 1900  (packet  No.  38) ;  and  over  her  Ferrer  exercised 
during  six  years  a  veritable  fascination,  directed  towards  her  con- 
version to  anarchism.  The  numerous  and  interesting  letters 
which  make  up  packet  No.  39  reflect  exactly  the  impression 
which  the  prisoner's  suggestions  were  producing  upon  her  mind, 
leading  her  to  make  the  following  confession  in  a  letter  dated 

November  2,  1899.  "  I  had,"  she  says, 
*'  an  admiring  regard  for  the  clergy  : 
it  is  dead  ;  I  felt  respect  and  admiration 
for  men  and  things  connected  with 
Justice  :  it  is  dead ;  I  cherished  esteem 
and  admiration  for  soldiers  :  it  is  dead ; 
I  had  respect,  in  general,  for  everything 
connected  with  authority  and  govern- 
ment, and  ...  it  is  dead  .  .  . ;  but  there  is  a  Supreme  Being,  a 
God,  the  God  of  my  mother,  the  God  she  adored,  who  made  her 
happy,  who  accorded  her  a  calm  and  gentle  death.  .  .  ."  This 
God  Ferrer  did  not  succeed  in  tearing  from  her  soul ;  neither  did 
he  succeed  in  making  Mile.  Meunie'  accept  the  employment  of 
bombs  and  explosives;    she   always  answered  her  disinterested 

teacher's  arguments  by  saying  that  as 
a  wild  lion  or  tiger  is  shut  up  in  a  cage 
to  prevent  his  doing  harm,  so  it  was 
necessary  to  shut  up  militant  anarchists 
for  the  same  reason.  The  conversion 
of  Mile.  Meunie'  to  anarchism,  then, 
was  not  complete,  but  it  was  sufficient 
to  enable  Ferrer  to  attain  the  end  he 
had  set  before  himself;  and  on  their 
return  from  a  journey,  the  prisoner,  by 
invoking  ideas  of  philanthropy  and  of 
succour  to  the  helpless,  extorted  from 
her  a  grant  of  an  annual  endowment  of 
10,000  francs  for  the  maintenance  of 
an  Asylum  School.  This  was,  by 
Ferrer's  agency,  changed  into  the 
Escuela    Moderna,    which    carried    out    a    work    diametrically 

X 


It  is  a  pity  that  the  Auditor 
docs  not  vouchsafe  any  quota- 
tion from  which  it  should 
clearly  appear  that  Ferrer 
advocated  '^^  the  employment 
of  bombs  and  explosives. ^^ 
Even  supposing  him  at  heart 
a  terrorist.,  it  is  wildly  im- 
probable that  he  should  imperil 
his  chatices  with  Mile.  Meu- 
nier  by  confessing  such  views. 


Here  the  Auditor  does  not 
profess  to  be  quoting  from 
letters .  He  is  merely  repeating 
the  groundless  assertions  of 
Sipior  Coppola.     See  p.  28. 


306  APPENDIX 

opposed  to  the  ends  and  aims  of  Ernestine  Meunie',  its  unconscious 
founder. 

The  necessary  funds  obtained,  the  studies  of  the  School  had 
next  to  be  subjected  to  a  guidance  adequate  to  the  design  of 
forming  young  revolutionaries,  or,  to  put  it  better,  anarchists  ; 
and  for  that  necessity  Ferrer  had  already  provided  by  opening 

philosophico-mercantile   relations   with 

For  the  true  story  of  Cle-  Mme.  Ch.  Jacquinet,  a  primary  teacher, 
vunce^not^^Ch^pjprdnet  ^^^  ^j^^^^^^  ^  j  ^^^^^^  ^^  ^^^^^ 
see  p.  35.      The  (.<')  a  hitle  1,      1        i,-  u      •         •  r 

lower  down  is  the  Auditor^s     (Egypt).   a  school   which,   m   View  of 
own.  the    harm  it   did,   was  closed  by  the 

intervention  of  the  English  authorities. 
Mme.  Jacquinet  was  an  atheist,  a  materialist,  scientifically  (?) 
convinced ;  anti-religious,  maintaining  that  religions,  by  divid- 
ing mankind,  constitute  a  real  obstacle  to  its  progress ;  anti- 
militarist,  anarchist,  such  an  one,  in  short,  as  to  realize  Ferrer's 
dream  of  a  person  fitted  to  form  by  her  teaching  an  archi- 
revolutionary  younger  generation  (letters  of  Mme.  Jacquinet 
packet  No.  34c).  Consequently,  it  was  she  whom  Ferrer  chose 
as  directress  of  his  school.  He  summoned  her  to  Paris,  thus 
snatching  her  from  suicide.  They  busied  themselves  for  some 
days  in  buying  the  scientific  material  for  teaching;  and  in  the 
first  days  of  January,  1901,  she  established  herself  at  Barcelona, 
and  began  the  installation  of  the  Escuela  Moderna^  in  which 
work  she  was  seconded  by  a  committee  composed  of  Sres. 
Brosa  (afterwards  Ferrer's  son-in-law),  Hurtado  -Prat,  Canivel, 
Salas  Anton,  Jaime  Peiro,  and  Odon  de   Buen  (file  No.  34c). 

Thus  did  it  happen  that  Mme.  Jacquinet, 
TJu  authorities  of  liberal    ^ooted  out  of  the  soil  of  Egypt  as  a 
England  in  fto  way  inter-    noxious   and   dangerous   germ   by  the 
fered  with  Mme.  Jacquinet.       authorities   of  liberal   England,   trans- 
planted by  Ferrer  to  Barcelona,  struck 
root,  developed,  and   brought   forth  abundant   and  very  bitter 
fruits  in  our  calumniated  Spain. 

Mme.  Jacquinet  having  besought  Ferrer  to  remove  her  from 
the  administrative  department  of  the  School,  he  addressed  himself 
to  his  friend  and  co-religionary,  Josd  Prats,  asking  him  to  take  up 
the  preliminary  work.     And  in  order  to  prove  completely  that 


FOR  THE   DEFENCE 


307 


If  only  ^'aKarc/iisi"  he 
clearly  distinguished  from 
'■^  terrorist ^^  it  is  not  for  a 
niornent  denied  that  this  was 
Ferrer's  main  object. 


Ferrer's  sole  object  in  setting  up  his   school  was   to  create  a 

generation  of  anarchists  and  revolu- 
tionaries, the  Auditor  will  transcribe 
some  paragraphs  from  his  letters  to 
Prats,  the  more  so  since  in  all  of  them 
is  found  a  constant  repetition  of  the 
idea  that  the  most  revolutionary  work  in 
the  world  is  the  adequate  education  of 
the  working  class.  Ferrer  says  in  the  letter  of  September  29, 
1900  :  ".  "Friend  Prats,  it  is  my  intention  to  found  in  this  town 
an  emancipatory  school,  whose  business  shall  be  to  banish  from 
the  brain  that  which  divides  men  (religion),  the  false  ideas  of 
property,  of  country  and  of  family,  etc.,  in  order  to  achieve  the 
liberty  and  welfare  which  all  desire  and  none  attain  completely." 
In  the  letter  of  December  6,  he  adds :  "  We  must  so  contrive 
that  all  the  acts  of  the  School — its  books,  its  practices,  etc. — 
shall  be  internally  libertarian,  but  without  making  a  show  of 
this  externally^  because  otherwise  we  should  not  be  able  to  live." 
And  in  the  letter  of  the  i8th  of  the  same  month  he  rounded  off 
this  thought,  saying  :  "  But  that  which  I  intend  doing  is  so  much 
outside  all  that  has  hitherto  been  done,  that,  if  no  acceptable 
methods  (of  instruction)  exist,  we  shall  have  to  create  them  on 
purpose,  seeing  that  in  the  School  no  homage  must  be  paid  to 
God,  to  the  Country  or  to  anything." 

With    this    end    in    view  —  that    of    procuring    texts    and 

methods  of  instruction — the  prisoner 
drew  up  a  circular  inviting  to  a  com- 
petition of  authors,  in  which  we  read  : 
"A  revolutionary  republican  who  has 
lived  in  Paris  since  1885,  and  who, 
since  that  date,  owing  to  the  disgust 
and  disillusionment  suffered  in  his  con- 
tact with  the  progressists  and  other 
Spanish  republicans  ;  owing  to  his 
observation  of  the  French  radical  and 
socialist  parties  ;  having  taken  part  in 
an  infinity  of  congresses  of  workers  and 
of  social  democrats ;  having  witnessed  the  disputes  of  the  socialist 


This  paragraph^  and  the 
next  one,  are  invaluable  docu- 
ments—for the  defertce.  Who 
can  possibly  believe  that  a 
man  sincerely  holding  these 
doctrines  (and  ike  plea  of 
hypocrisy  is  here  tacitly  aban- 
doned) would  consider  his 
educational  mission  fulfilled 
in  eight  years  of  persecuted 
and  hampered  activity,  and 
■would  stake  his  life  and  life- 
work  on  the  success  of  a  for- 
tuitous local  rawlt  f 


308  APPENDIX 

leaders  ;  and  having  read  the  Press  which  styles  itself  the  defender 
of  the  people's  rights ;  has  arrived  at  the  conviction  that  the  only 
path  which  can  lead  to  the  redemption  of  those  who  suffer  and  to 
a  real  social  state  is  the  education  of  the  working  class.  .  .  .  Con- 
vinced, then,  of  this,  he  has  changed  the  ardour  which  formerly 
possessed  him  in  favour  of  political  revolution  into  a  passion 
for  the  instruction  of  the  people,  and  thanks  to  his  persistent 
propaganda,  he  has  succeeded  in  finding  certain  resources  for 
the  foundation  of  an  emancipatory  School.  It  is  his  desire — for 
he  is  still  a  republican  and  revolutionary — that  the  emancipatory 
School  should  justify  its  name  truly  and  completely.  .  .  .  Francisco 
Ferrer  Guardia,  the  person  in  question,  intends  to  establish  the 
School  in  Barcelona,  because  he  considers  the  Catalan  Capital 
to  be  the  best  focus  for  propaganda  and  for  the  development  of 
these  ideas."  Whereupon  he  announces  a  competition,  setting 
forth  the  principles  to  be  observed  in  the  drawing  up  of  different 
texts  under  such  conditions  that   history,  geography,  grammar, 

and  all  the  sciences,  arts,  and  letters 

For  the  phrase  of  which  converge  to  the  end  of  depriving 

this  IS  probably  a  perversion^  -,,,,.-  ,  ° 

see  pp.  87,  89.  ^^  young  of  all  beliefs  and  flattering 

all  their  appetites  (file  No.  13). 
And  in  order  to  dispel  all  doubt  that  in  the  education  he 
styles  rational  and  scientific  the  sole  ideal  aspired  to  is  that  of 
creating  revolutionaries  and  anarchists,  particular  mention  may 
be  made  of  the  prisoner's  reply  to  a  letter  of  Don  Oddn  de 
Buen,  in  which  the  latter  complains  of  having  barely  escaped 
being  a  victim  of  the  outrage  of  Hostafranch,  having  been  in 
company  with  Salmeron,  and  says  that  this  outrage  had  been 
prepared  by  intimates  of  Ferrer,  wherefore  he  finds  himself 
unable  to  visit  him  (Ferrer  was  at  this  time  in  the  Model  Prison 
at  Madrid)  fearing  to  find  there  certain  persons  whom  he  does 
not  wish  to  meet.  To  this  Ferrer  replies  in  a  ^letter  of  May 
25,  1907:  "As  for  not  coming  to  see  me,  I  regret  that  it 
should  be  for  the  reason  you  mention,  because  I  am  certain  you 
would  find  nobody  in  my  locutory  whose  presence  could  annoy 
you :  if  it  is  Lerroux  to  whom  you  allude,  I  have  not  seen  him 
more  than  three  or  four  times  in  a  whole  year,  and  not  for  more 
than  a  quarter  of  an  hour  in  all.     It  is  very  regrettable,  Don 


FERRER'S    INFLUENCE 


309 


Yes,  this  was  his  convic- 
tion ;  but  he  did  not  dream 
that  a  people  could  be  regene- 
rated in  the  iivinkling  of  a?i 
eye.  lie  frequently  insisted 
on  the  need  for  time  and 
patience.  See  in  pariiatlar 
the  fragment  written  on  tlie 
last  day  of  his  life,  p.  236. 


Odon,  that  political  passions  should  separate  men  who  by  their 
aspirations,  or  at  least  by  their  propaganda,  ought  to  find  them- 
selves always  united.  You  already  know  how  much  I  have  been 
disillusioned  with  politics ;  and  now,  with  these  new  divergencies, 
and  strange  orientations,  the  conviction  takes  firmer  root  in  me 

that  by  rational  instruction  and  equali- 
tarian  education  we  shall  be  able  to  go 
further,  much  further,  than  by  electoral 
contests."  He  expresses  himself  in  a 
similar  strain  when  he  writes  to  Dr. 
Garriga  of  Buenos  Ayres,  and  repeats 
a  hundred  times  that  the  most  intensely 
and  unfailingly  revolutionary  work  is 
education  in  the  form  by  him  estab- 
lished. 
When  therefore,  in  1906,  the  Escuela  Moderna  was  closed, 
Ferrer  set  to  work  to  open  a  passage  for  his  propaganda  by  intro- 
ducing into  the  school  of  Casa  del  Pueblo,  into  the  SoUdaridad 
Obrera,  and  each  and  all  of  the  numerous  radical  political  centres 
estabhshed  at  Barcelona  and  in  Catalonia,  his  texts,  his  pamphlets, 
his  books ;  in  this  way,  quietly,  without  exciting  suspicion,  with- 
out arousing  protest,  and  under  the  pretext  of  obtaining  for  the 
people  a  rational  and  scientific  education,  he  has  gone  on  bringing 

under  his  influence,  little  by  little,  the 
most  active  elements  of  the  extreme 
parties,  to  such  a  degree  that  in  fact 
they  can  attempt  no  political  movement 
in  Catalonia  without  finding  themselves 
swept  away  by  the  wave  of  anarchism 
which  envelops  them  and  hurries  them 
on  to  social  revolution. 

Soon  certain  sections  of  the  re- 
publican party  became  aware  of  this 
evil,  as  is  proved  by  the  efforts  they  made  last  year  to  banish 
Ferrer's  books  from  their  schools  (letters  of  Colominas  and 
Bertelosi  to  Ferrer,  packets  3  to  11).  But  events  have  shown 
that  it  was  already  too  late,  since  the  evil  was  done.  A  detailed 
examination  of  the  accounts  of  the  Escuela  Moderna  and  of  th  ; 


The  usual  wild  exaggera- 
tion of  the  influence  of  the 
JEscuela  Moderna  and  its 
text-books.  See  p.  60.  It 
must  be  admitted  that  some  of 
Ferrer' s  foreign  admirers  un- 
wittingly helped  to  foster  this 
illusion.  The  next  three  para- 
graphs all  ring  the  changes 
on  the  same  theme. 


;310  APPENDIX 

publications  directed  by  Ferrer — an  examination  to  which  the 

Auditor  has  been   unable,  for   lack  of 

.  .  y    •       y    time,  to  apply  himself — would  brins;  to 

An  amazing  conjesston  oj  ^  ^  ^   ■*  ° 

the  necessity  — imposed,  as  light  the  very  far-reaching  work  of  anar- 
Paz  Ferrer  put  it,  by  "rea-  chist  propaganda  accomplished  during 
sons  of  state  ^' -for  hurrying  j^tg  yg^rs ;  but,  taking  in  bulk  certain 
Ferrer  into  his  grave.  ,         r       •  ^      ^   ^  ■       ■,  ■,      ^ 

data  furnished  by  a  simple  perusal  of 

various  documents,  we  may  see,  from  a 
print  bearing  the  title  Four  Fra?idsco  Ferrer,  written  in  French 
and  English,  which  appears  in  packet  No.  24,  that  in  the  year 
1906,  before  the  attempt  upon  their  Majesties,  Ferrer  numbered, 
in  the  province  of  Barcelona  alone,  47  branches  of  the  Escuela 
Moderna,  which  number  has  since  increased  prodigiously,  stretch- 
ing not  only  over  the  rest  of  the  Catalan  provinces,  but  over  those 
of  Valencia,  Granada,  Seville,  and  other  districts. of  Andalusia. 
And  his  books,  pamphlets,  and  reviews,  no  longer  intended  for 
children,  like  the  school  texts,  but  for  the  adult  section  of  the 
working  class,  now  find  a  wide  market  in  Spain  and  America; 
numerous  translations  are  published  of  all  the  acratist  and 
anarchist  works  which  appear  abroad,  editions  of  some  of  them 
being  rapidly  exhausted,  and  immediately  replaced  by  others,  of 
an  improved  quality.  It  is  equally  to  be  remarked  that  when  one 
or  other  of  the  political  groups  supplying  themselves  with  his 
works  shows  some  slowness  in  paying  for  its  orders,  Ferrer  does 
not  press  them,  doubtless  counting  it  more  revolutionary  to  reap 
in  its  due  time  the  fruit  which  his  works  may  produce,  than  at 
once  to  recover  a  few  pesetas. 

The  correspondence  under  analysis  brings  to  light,  moreover, 
the  authority  and  domination  which  the  prisoner  Ferrer  exercised 
over  the  elements  surrounding  him,  constituted  not  only  of  the 
teachers  of  the  numerous  schools  dependent  on  him,  but  of  the 
intellectuals  who  shared  in  his  work,  writing  texts,  and  collabo- 
rating in  the  reviews  and  bulletins  which  Ferrer  published  at 
Barcelona,  Brussels,  and  Rome.  And  on  examination  of  the 
letters  addressed  to  the  prisoner  by  Anselmo  Lorenzo,  Litran, 
Colominas,  Odon  de  Buen,  Pi  Arsuaga,  Nakens,  Est^vanez,  Palasi, 
and  various  others  in  Spain  ;  A.  Naquet  and  Grave  in  France ; 
E.  Stander,  Engerrand,  and  Eol.  Duchemin  at  Brussels ;  and  Fabri 


HYPOCRISY   RE-ASSERTED        311 

at  Rome,  we  may  perceive  that  they  all  rendered  to  Ferrer  the 
respect  due  not  only  to  the  publisher  who  pays,  and  pays  in 
advance  without  haggling,  the  price  of  work  done  for  him,  but  to 
the  intelligence  which  commands,  and  the  chief  who  directs. 
Perusal  of  this  correspondence  makes  clear  the  leadership  and 
authority  exercised  by  the  prisoner.  Ferrer  also  stood  on  terms 
of  intimate  and  fraternal  friendship  with  the  anarchists  Malato 
and  Kropotkin,  some  of  whose  works  were  published  at  Barcelona, 
translated  by  A,  Lorenzo,  at  the  same  time  as  at  Paris  (letter  of 
Lorenzo,  packet  12);  and  in  the  same  way  he  maintained 
relations  with  Tarrida,  Malatesta,  Reclus,  and  other  foreign 
anarchists.  The  prisoner  Ferrer  occupies  a  high  place  in  the 
freemasonry  of  the  world,  as  is  shown  by  the  diplomas,  medals, 
and  insignia  seized  at  Mas  Germinal,  the  very  numerous  masonic 
letters  making  up  the  fifty  files  which  the  Auditor  is  unable  to 
decipher,  and  also  the  high  and  delicate  missions  which  have 
been  confided  to  him  within  the  sphere  of  the  world's  free- 
masonry, as  appears  in  detail  in  files  15-27,  and  various 
others. 

From  all  that  has  thus  been  set  forth  it  results  :  ist,  that  the 
prisoner  Ferrer  Guardia  has  devoted  the  energies  and  activities 
of  his  whole  life  to  the  triumph  of  the  revolution  ;  2nd,  that 
despite  the  ardour  and  constancy  with  which  he  has  worked  for 
the  revolutionary  cause,  he  always  wished  to  remain  in  the  shade, 

hiding  under  the  pseudonym   of  Zero 
See  pp.  222,  278,  301.  during  the   period  when  he  took   part 

in   political    conspiracies,   and   putting 
on  the  mask  of  scientific  and  rational 

education   when,  changing   his   course. 

Here  the  suggestion  of  hy-     ^^  j^j^^^j^-  ^^^^  ^^  anarchist  pro- 

pocTtsy,  abandoned  for  several  °  * 

pages,  is  quietly  reinstated  in    pagan^a,  and  the  engendering   of  the 

the  pleadings.  social  revolution ;   3rd,  that  he  was  the 

true  CHIEF  of  the  anarchists,  acratists, 
libertarians  of  Spain. 

With  such  antecedents,  established  by  his  own  letters,  it  is 
not  surprising  that — when,  in  the  week  of  shame,  bands  of  women 
and  youths  set  fire  to  churches  and  convents,  desecrated  tombs, 
and  dragged  through  the  streets  of  Barcelona  the  corpses    and 


312 


APPENDIX 


Is  this,  perhaps,  the  foun- 
dation for  the  legend  of  the 
nun  ' '  outraged  and  brutally 
murdered"?  Evidently  the 
Auditor,  like  the  Bishop  cited 
on  p.  137,  kno^vs  nothing  of 
that  legend  in  its  completed 
form. 


mummies  of  the  nuns ;   when  another  band  of  women,  in  the 

Campo  de  Galvany,  stopped  a  nun 
who  had  hidden  in  her  clothes  some 
money  and  articles  which  she  wished 
to  rescue  from  the  rapacity  of  her 
assailants,  stripped  her  of  her  gar- 
ments one  by  one  till  they  left  her  in 
her  chemise,  stole  all  she  had  with  her, 
and,  after  deliberating  whether  or  not 
to  cast  her  into  the  flames  that  were  consuming  her  convent,  let 
her  go,  amid  insults  and  jests  of  the  coarsest  and  most  degraded 
kind ; — when  one  of  the  rebels,  taking  in  his  arms  the  embalmed 
corpse  of  another  nun,  danced  with  it  and  desecrated  it  in 
brutish  fashion ;  when  another  rebel,  finding  amid  the  ruins  of  a 
gutted  convent  a  most  beautiful  image  of  the  Virgin  .  .  .  sub- 
jected it  to  the  most  perverse  of  profanations ;  and  when  so  many 

other  acts  of  sectarian  savagery  were 
committed  in  Catalonia — it  is  not  as- 
tonishing that  the  outraged  public  con- 
science should  exclaim  with  one  voice, 
"  This  is  the  work  of  Ferrer  ! "  And 
assuredly  it  was  not  mistaken,  since 
those  who  carried  out  this  work  were 
bound  to  him  in  the  relation  of  fruit 
and  seed,  effect  and  cause,  pupil  and 
master,  chief  who  commands  and  soldier  who  obeys. 

What  has  already  been  set  forth,  deduced  from  examination 
of  the  documentary  proof,  would  suffice,  without  the  necessity  of 
opening  the  portfolio  of  the  records,  to  induce  in  the  mind  an 

intimate,  reasoned,  and  incontrovert- 
ible conviction  that  Francisco  Ferrer 
Guardia  was  the  moral  author  and 
CHIEF  of  the  anarchist  revolutionary 
movement  in  Catalonia,  realizing  in  it 
the  dreams  of  his  whole  existence,  and 
reaping  the  fruit  of  his  30  years  of 
incessant  toil  devoted  to  the  triumph  of 


Assuredly  it  was  the  ** pub- 
lic conscience" — or,  in  other 
ivoi-ds,  ignorant  and  violent 
prejudice — that  did  Fe7-rer  to 
death,  He7'e  and  i?i  the  next 
paragraph  the  'equivoque  be- 
tween  "  moral'?  and  actual 
responsibility  emerges  very 
clearly. 


"  Silly  "  seems  to  be  the  only 
epithet  for  the  cotitention  that 
in  the  haphazard  Barcelona 
riots  Ferrer  realized,  or  hoped 
to  realize,  *^  the  dreams  of  his 
existence,"  reaped,  or  hoped  to 
reap,  the  fruits  of  30  years' 
toil. 


the  social  revolution. 


THE   SPY  AND   THE  TROOPERS     313 

Let  us  now  see  how  the  facts  above  reported  fit  in  with  the 

events  which  took  place  in  Catalonia  during  the  last  week  of  July. 

This  second  part  of  his  pronouncement  will  be  easy,  quick, 

and  simple  for  the  Auditor,  since  a  very  detailed  account  of  the 

facts  is  given  in  the  abstract  of  the  Examining  Magistrate  (folio 

496  onwards) ;  the  charges  against  the 
More  mutual  adtniratiott.      prisoner  arising  out  of  the  record  are 

stated  with  all  lucidity  and  accuracy  by 
the  Prosecutor  in  his  indictment,  and  by  the  Assessor  in  his 
opinion  ;  while  the  legal  description  appropriate  to  these  charges 
is  set  forth  with  keen  juridical  discrimination.  The  undersigned 
being  at  one  with  them  in  their  appreciations,  a  new  enumeration 
of  the  facts  would  be  tedious  and  barren.  For  these  reasons,  the 
Auditor  need  do  no  more  than  recall  the  most  salient  features  of 
the  prisoner's  share  in  the  events  of  Barcelona,  Premia,  and 
Masnou. 

Ferrer's  presence  is  certified  among  the  rebels  of  Barcelona, 
where  he  is  observed  in  the  groups  which  at  about  six  o'clock 

in  the  evening  collected  in  the   Plaza 
.S"«//.  206,  267.  Antonio  Lopez;   when  they  were  dis- 

persed by  a  cavalry  picket,  the  prisoner, 
by  his  contemptuous  replies,  drew  upon 
He  maJe  only  one  reply,     himself  the  notice  of  the   soldiers   of 
wte   er     con  emp  uous     or    ^^^   picket,   who  identified   him    three 

times  among  a  circle  of  prisoners  (foUos 
488   and   489).     He   appears   a   short 
He  conversed  with  only  one    time  afterwards  at  Atarazanas,  convers- 
ed" the  groups.    These  things    jj^g  y^\^]^  j^e  groups  which  were  there, 
are  trtjles  but  they  shou;  the    ^^   declared  by   the   agent   shadowing 
general  tendency  to  loose  ex-  -'  ■       ■       ^       -n 

aggeration.  him,  who  lost  sight  of  h)m  m  the  Kam- 

blas  during  a  charge  of  the  police,  and 
saw  him  again,'  some  time  afterwards,  enter  the  International 
Hotel,  where  he  supped. 

He  appears  afterwards,  accompanied  by  Francisco  Domenech, 

the    barber    of    Masnou,    paying    two 
See  pp.  208,  265.  visits  to  the  office  of  El  Fro^rcso,  to 

see  what  the  comrades  were  agreeing  to 
do;   but  he  comes  away  disappointed  from  these  conferences, 


314 


APPENDIX 


His  plan  {7vhich  was  noi 
"  /lis  "  iti  any  real  sense)  was 
to  suggest  that  the  Govern- 
ment should  avert  a  revolu- 
tion l>y  stoppifig  the  embarka- 
tion of  reservists.  He  did  not 
*'  sefid  "  Moreno  "  with  a  mes- 
sage " — Domenec/C s  evidence 
contains  no  hint  of  such  a 
thing. 


The  movement   began    in 
earnest  some  15  hours  later. 


because   Emiliano   Iglesias  and  those  with  him  had  not  shown 

themselves  disposed  to  assist  his  revo- 
lutionary plans.  A  short  time  after- 
wards, having  met  his  co-religionary 
Moreno,  in  the  Calle  de  la  Princesa, 
he  sent  him  with  a  third  message  to 
the  office  of  El  Frogreso,  where  there 
were  some  representatives  of  the  Soli- 
daridad  Obrera,  to  see  what  decision 
they  had  taken;  and  this  time  he 
chained  a  better  result,  since  the  revo- 
lutionary movement  then  began,  and 
since,  as  is  shown  in  another  case 
actually  pending  before  the  Supreme 
Council  of  the  Army  and  Navy,  the  said  Moreno,  and  Jose 
Rodriguez  Romero,  the  president  of  the  Solidaridad  Obrera,  acted 
as  chiefs  of  a  nucleus  of  rebels,  who  erected  various  barricades 
between  the   Calles   San   Pablo,  Beato  Oriol,  San  Ramon,  and 

other  neighbouring  streets.   It  is  proved 
Ardid^s  evidence,  even  if    also  that  Ferrer  appeared  on  the  same 
correctly  reported,  contained    ^^y  at  the  Casa  del  Pueblo,  with  the 
no  such  suggestion :  nor  was        ■,  ■     ^     c    ■>  ,    ■    ■        r  t  *i--i 

Ardid  in  a  position  to  exert  ^^^^^^  ^^  obtamuig  from  Lorenzo  Ardid 
any  influence  on  the  course  of  that  the  protest  should  not  be  limited 
events.    See  pp.  20^,  266.         to  the  Strike  of  the  26th;  and  it  has 

been  similarly  established  that  many  of 
the  individuals  on  whom  arms  were 
found  confessed  that  they  had  received 
them  from  a  gentleman  dressed  in  blue 
with  a  straw  hat,  which  description 
coincides  accurately  with  the  description  of  the  prisoner  given  by 
the  cavalry  picket. 

On  the  next  day,  the  27th,  the  witness  Don  Francisco  de 
P.    Colldefons  (who,   to   his  honour  be  it   said,   has  been  the 

only  inhabitant  of  Barcelona  who,  shak- 
Seepp.  164,  211,  268.  ing  off  the  disgraceful  social  cowardice 

which  here  prevails,  presented  himself 
to  give  evidence)  reports  that  he  saw  Ferrer,  about  half-past 
seven  in  the  evening,  captaining  a  group  of  rebels  which  passed 


These  "  many"  individuals 
were  '' certain"  in  the  evi- 
dence.   See  p.  274. 


MYTHICAL   CONVENT-BURNING    315 


along  the  Ramblas,  in  front  of  the  Liceo,  and  then  proceeded 
down  the  Calle  del  Hospital.  This  witness  subsequently  identified 
the  accused  in  a  circle  of  prisoners  as  being  the  person  he  had 
seen  in  the  Rambla  at  the  head  of  the  group  before  mentioned 
(folio  493) ;  and  this  incident  concludes  the  facts  which  prove 
the  direct  intervention  of  the  prisoner  in  the  events  of  Barce- 
lona. 

On  July  28,  Ferrer  appears  accompanied  by  Llarch  at  the 
anarchist    society   known   as   the    Fraternidad    Republicana   at 

Premia;  he  causes  the  Alcalde,  Sr. 
Casas  Llibre,  the  Deputy  Alcalde,  Sr. 
Mustares,  and  the  assistant,  Espinosa, 
to  be  summoned,  and  he  holds  with 
them  a  conference  which  is  reported  in 
detail  in  the  speech  for  the  prosecution, 
proposing  to  them  the  proclamation  of 
the  Republic  and  the  burning  of  the 
churches  and  convents.  This  proposi- 
tion, though  in  appearance  repudiated 
by  the  Alcalde,  leaks  out  and  is  trans- 
lated into  deeds,  since,  from  the  time 
of  this  conference,  the  strike  at  Premia, 
which  had  hitherto  developed  pacifi- 
cally, takes  a  bad  turn,  and  the  acts  of 
violence,  the  attack  upon,  and  burning 
of,  the  convents  begin.  Ferrer  gives 
to  an  employee  of  the  Municipality, 
whom  it  has  been  impossible  to  identify, 
several  dynamite  cartridges  intended 
for  the  destruction  of  the  convents,  of 
which  cartridges  two  exploded  during 
the  burning  of  the  Convent  of  the 
Brothers  of  the  Christian  Doctrine ;  and  finally  he  gave  direct 
instructions  to  Sold,  surnamed  Casola^  as  to  the  form  the 
revolution  is  to  take,  as  appears  in  detail  in  the  speech  for  the 
prosecution. 

Also   at   Masnou  the   revolutionary  influence  and  action  of 
Ferrer   made   itself    felt.     After    changing    his   appearance    by 


The  club  of  virtuous  and 
incorruptible  republicans  has 
suddenly  blossomed  into  an 
anaichist  society. 

For  the  "  conference  in  de- 
tail" see  p.  271. 


Can  it  be  that  the  Auditor 
doubts  the  virtue  of  the 
Alcalde? 


As  a  matter  of  fact,  no  con- 
vents were  burnt  at  Premia, 
The  huge  convent  of  the 
Christian  Doctrine  was  abso- 
lutely intact.  It  may  be  seen 
in  the  illustration  at  p.  219. 

The  sole  evidence  in  regard 
to  Casola  is  one  witnesses 
*'  moral  certainty."  See  pp. 
200,  272. 


316 


APPENDIX 


The  utter  worthlessness  of 
the  evidence  for  these  occur- 
retices  at  Masnou  is  shown  at 
p.  202, 


shaving  the  beard  he  was  in  the  habit  of  wearing,  he  summoned 

Juan  Puig,  called  Llarck,  and  proposed 

As  to  the  shaving,  see  pp.     to  him  to  go  to   the  Town  Hall  and 

2'5.  268.  proclaim  the  Republic  in   Masnou;   a 

proposal  which  Llarch  energetically 
repudiated;  in  spite  of  which  the  prisoner  insisted  anew  that 
people  ought  to  be  stirred  up  to  begin  the  burning  of  the  convents. 
Llarch  having  answered  him  that  he  did  not  understand  how  the 
Republic  was  to  ensue  from  the  burning  of  convents,  Ferrer 
rejoined  that  for  his  part  he  did  not  care  about  the  Republic, 
but  the  point  was  that  there  should  be  a  revolution.     During  the 

evening  and   the   night  there  was  ob- 
served at    Masnou    the    presence    of 
groups  of  unknown  persons,  of  seditious 
behaviour,  who  awaited  the  arrival  of 
Ferrer ;  but  he  did  not  come ;  one  of 
the  rebels  spoke  in  his  name,  excusing 
the  prisoner  by  saying  that  he  could  not  take  part  in  what  was 
going  on   because  the  affairs  of  the  revolution  demanded  his 
presence  in  Barcelona.     Finally,  it  is  proved  that  from  the  27th 

to  the  29th  some  bands  of  persons  were 
posted  on  the  high  road,  for  the  purpose 
of  watching,  who  stopped  tartanas,  carts, 
and  bicycles,  and  in  doing  this  carried 
out,  as  they  told  a  witness,  the  orders 
of  Ferrer,  from  whom  they  received 
money.  To  these  clear,  precise  and 
well-defined  charges  Ferrer  opposes 
only  his  denial ;  but  not  the  round  and 
categorical  denial  of  the  man  who  has 
rooted  in  his  soul  the  absolute  certainty 
of  his  innocence,  but  the  tepid  and 
hesitating  denial  of  the  man  who  denies 
simply  that  he  may  not  confess,  of  the 
man  who,  pressed  at  the  confrontations 
by  the  witnesses  against  him,  sees  him- 
self constrained  to  admit  what  he  denied 
he  persists  timidly  in  his  statements, 


The  Auditor  here  rutts 
together  two  alleged  incidents, 
one  at  Masnou,  one  at  ]] Ion- 
gat.  The  giving  of  money 
rests  on  the  evidence  of  a 
newspaper  paragraph  which 
a  witness  remembered  to  have 
read.     See  pp.  201,  274,  275. 


This  is  flagrantly  untrue. 


Only  in  one  case  did  he 
withdraw  a  previous  denial — 
his  denial  of  having  visited 
the  Casa  del  Pueblo. 

before,  and  even  when 


"SPIRITUAL  PANCLASTINA  "    317 

emerges  from  all  of  them  [the  confrontations]  discredited  and 
damaged. 

If,  as  the  defence  asserts,  Ferrer  Guardia  could  have  been 

exonerated  by  the  evidence  of  Soledad 
See  pp.  189,  292.  Villafranca  and  his  other  disciples  now 

residing  at  Teruel,  they  have  had  time 

to  make  their  declarations  during  the  28  days  occupied  by  the 

Sumario  ;  and  besides  the  prisoner  could  have  cited  them  in  his 

interrogatories ;  for,  just  as  all  the  persons  were  examined  whom 

Ferrer  had  cited  in  his  interrogatories^  so  also  a  declaration  would 

have  been  demanded  of  those  persons ;  but  as  he  never  asked  for 

any  declaration  from  them  until  the  case  was  in  the  stage  of  the 

Plenario,  it  has  been  impossible  to  grant  his  request  owing  to  the 

prohibition  imposed  by  paragraph  5  of  section  552  of  our  Code. 

The  same  may  be  said  of  the  declarations  of  the  philosophers, 

thinkers,  and  eminent  persons  who  from  London,  Brussels,  Paris, 

Rome,  could  have  added  to   the  record  their   opinions  of  the 

prisoner,  proving  that  men  who  hold  the  ideas  of  Ferrer   are 

opposed  to  acts  of  violence  of  every  sort.     Supposing  that  these 

declarations  were  actually  in  the  record,  and  that  in  them  it  were 

shown    in    brilliant    periods    that    Ferrer   is   the   redeemer    of 

Humanity,   through   rational   and   scientific   education ;  that   to 

diffuse  that  education  among  the  working  class  he  sacrifices  his 

welfare,    his   life,   his   energy,  and   his   fortune;  that   he   is   an 

altruist,  a  philosopher  in  advance  of  his  century,  and    that  he 

possesses  all  the  admirable  qualities  that  can  exalt  human  nature, 

on  which  his  Defender  descants  with  enthusiasm  ; — the  fact  1  would 

still  remain  that  all  these  eulogistic  assertions  fall  to  the  ground 

in  view  of  those  which,  with  his  own  hand,  Ferrer  sets  down  in 

in  the  letters  making  up  the  50  files  of  correspondence,  of  which 

some  are  transcribed  in  the  first  part 
The  same  old  argument     ^f  ^j^jg  pronouncement ;  for  they  show 
that,   because  he  had  run  «,,,,-.    i-  j  ^    ^        ui 

small  school  for  s  y^ars  and    Nearly   that   tcrrer   does   not   trouble 

published  some  40  text-books,  about  the  education  of  the  people  ex- 
h£  thought  his  work  of  educa-  eept  in  SO  far  as  that  education  tends 
tion  completed  and  the  popu-     ^^  produce  revolutionaries,  and  that  he 

lace  ripe  for  revolution .  "  . 

directs    his    efforts    to    steeping   their 
brains    in  the  spiritual  panclastina  evolved  by  equalitarian  and 


:318  APPENDIX 

anarchist  instruction,  in  the  hope  that  its  explosion  will  produce, 
as  in  fact  it  has  produced,  greater  and  deeper  devastation  than 
the  other  panclastina,  the  recipe  for  which  accompanies  the 
Circular  No.  2.  Furthermore,  if  the  Defender  desires  the  inclusion 
in  the  record  of  the  impression  and  idea  of  the  prisoner  Ferrer 

prevailing  in  foreign  countries,  on  folio 

There  is  nothing  to  show    468  will   be  found  the  report   of  the 

that  the  French  police  did    prench  police  of  Paris,  in  which  it  is 

anything  more  than  echo  the  ...  ,       ,  _,  ... 

opinion  of  the  Spanish  police,     conclusively    Stated    that    Ferrer    "is 

regarded  there  as  a  very  dangerous 
revolutionary  and  a  propagandist  of  his  ideas  by  all  methods 
within  his  reach." 

The  Auditor  has  yet  to  add,  in  reply  to  an  observation  of  the 
defence,  that  the  numerous  documents  appertaining  to  this  case 
have  never  been  subjected  to  examination,  far  less  to  judgment, 
on  the  part  of  the  Tribunal  which  tried  the  case  arising  out  of 
the  attempt  upon  their  Majesties,  since  the  documents  on  the 
record  in  that  case  remained  in  the  archives  relating  thereto,  in 
the  same  way  as  the  documents  on  the  present  record  will  be 
filed.  It  is  further  to  be  remarked  that  very  many  of  the  letters 
in  this  case  are  dated  in  the  years  1907,  1908,  1909,  and  are, 
consequently,  later  than  the  judgment  on  which  the  defence  so 
much  insists. 

It  is  obvious  that  the  defence  of  the  prisoner  has  exceeded 
due  bounds  in  the  portion  attached  to  folio  587  and  those  which 
follow  it;  making  absolutely  gratuitous  assertions;  referring  to 
witnesses  as  suborned  whose  evidence  does  not  even  appear  on 

the    record;    relating     stories    which, 
Seep.  294.  having     no     relevance    to    the    case, 

deserve  the  name  of  romances;  stig- 
matizing as  enemies  of  the  accused  and  as   false  witnesses  all 

those  who   have  made  declaration  in 

This  playing  upon  a  pos-    the  proceedings,  regardless  of  the  fact 

sibly  careless  use  of  the  word    ^^^^^  j^g   thereby   contradicts    his   own 

*' all"    is     surely    childish.        ... 

See  i>  202  client,   who    accepts    as    true    certain 

assertions  of  these  same  witnesses ;  and 
committing,  here  and  there,  mischievous  reticences.  The  Auditor 
makes   allowance  for   the   very   difficult  position  of  the  officer 


"MILITARY   REBELLION  "         319 

bound  in  Law  and  in  honour  to  defend  a  prisoner  who  has  drawn 
attention  upon  himself  as  Francisco  Ferrer  Guardia  has  done, 
and  who  offers  his  advocate  no  other  basis  of  exculpation  than 
his  bare  denials,  a  situation  which  undoubtedly  cannot  but  pro- 
duce in  the  Defender's  mind  a  tension  so  extraordinary  that  it 
may  almost  be  regarded  as  partially  exempting  from  judgment 

what    has   been    written    under    such 
These  two  rows  of  asterisks     conditions. 
seem  to  indicate  the  omission  ^  :tic  *  * 

of  some  remarks  upon  Captain  *  *  «  * 

Galcerdn  which  zvere  felt  to 
be  injudicious.  It    is    useless,    however,    for    the 

Auditor  to  spend  time  in  discussing 
one  by  one  the  very  exaggerated  theories  of  the  defence.  The 
Assessor  having  already  devoted  himself  to  their  refutation  with 
great  accuracy,  address,  and  vigour,  in  the  opinion  which  he  has 
delivered,  the  Auditor  accepts,  and,  for  the  sake  of  brevity,  takes 
as  read  all  the  contents  of  that  document. 

After  the  reasoned,  conscientious,  and  detailed  analysis  of  our 
penal  laws  made  in  the  Prosecutor's  indictment,  and  in  the 
Assessor's  opinion,  to  show  that  the  combination  of  wrongful  acts 
accomplished  by  the  rebels,  under  the  leadership  {jefatura)  and 
on  the  initiative  of  the  prisoner  Ferrer,  constitute  the  crime  of 
military  rebellion  set  forth  in  paragraphs  3  and  4  of  section  237 
of  our  Code,  it  would  be  otiose  and  tedious  to  insist  on  this 
characterization,  which  evidently  appears ;  for  neither  did  Ferrer 
limit  himself  to  personally  promoting  the  anarchist  movement, 

but  by  means  of  his  subordinates  of  the 
No  proof  either  that  Solida.    Solidaridad   Obrera   acted   in   such   a 
rtdad   Obrera  were  Ferrer's  1      •  1      .1  t      1 

^^  subordinates;^  or  that  he  ^^y  as  to  decide  the  radical  party  to 
in  any  way  influenced  the  hurl  itself  into  the  Strife ;  nor  did  the 
radical  party.  On  the  con-  genuinely  anarchist  elements  limit  their 
trary,  there  is  ample  disproof  ^^^j^^  ^^  ^j^^  burning  of  COnventS  and 
of  both  assertions.  ,  ,       j        r  .1       .  •    j       • 

Other  deeds  of  the  kind,  since,  as  has 
been  said  above,  some  of  them  acted  as  chiefs  of  the  rebels 
in  one  of  the  quarters  of  the  town  where  the  greatest  resistance 
was  offered  to  the  Army ;  nor,  finally,  can  the  social  revolution 
fail  to  be  covered  by  article  237,  quoted  above;  since  to  destroy 
all  that  exists,  is  to  attack  equally  the  Constitution,  the  King,  the 


320  APPENDIX 

Legislative  Body,  the  Government,  and  the  whole  of  Society. 
Whence  appears  axiomatically  that  the  facts  set  forth  in  this  case 
amount  to  the  crime  of  military  rebellion,  in  the  course  of  which 
many  civil  misdemeanours  were  committed. 

The  fact  that  Ferrer  took  part  in  this  military  rebellion  in  the 
character,  if  not  of  its  sole  chief,  at  least  of  a  very  prominent 

one,  is  shown  first  by  the  evidence  of 
For  these  15  witnesses,  see    ^^e   15    witnesses,  examined  in  detail 
//.  196, 260.  .       ,       ^  ,      .    ,. 

in    the    Prosecutors    mdictment,   and 

,      ...    ,,  ,  ^       in  the  Assessor's  opinion,  rebutting  the 

Note  the  admission  that  Sr.  ° 

Ugarte's  opinion,  '^ siempre  defence;  and  Secondly,  by  the  declara- 
valiosisima,^^  was  treated  as  tion  of  his  Excellency  the  Prosecutor 
evidence.  of  the   Supreme  Court,  which  reflects 

not  only  his  personal  opinion,  in  itself 

In  viro)  0/ this  admission,     o^  g^^at  weight,  but  that  of  numerous 

what  comes  of  the  Assessoj-'s    representatives  of  the  most  important 

indignant  denial  {p.  293)  elements  of  Barcelona,  who  came  for- 
that  the^^  reactionary  elements  ,   ,  j  ,i     •     •  •  , 

and  conservative  classes^'  in-  '^^^^  *«  expound  their  impressions  be- 
Jluenced  the  case  ?  fore  that  high  functionary,  when,  repre- 

senting the  Government,  he  spent  a 
month  in  Barcelona,  studying  the  revolutionary  movement  of 
Catalonia. 

Further  evidence  of  the  said  leadership  (Jefatura)  is  afforded 
by  the  actual  events  which  took  place  during  the  rebellion,  viewed 
in  relation  to  the  antecedents  and  ambitions  of  the  prisoner.  It 
is  indeed  a  phenomenon  worthy  of  observation  that  the  places 
where  acts  of  a  sectarian  nature  developed  to  the  greatest  extent 
correspond  exactly  with  the  points  at  which  Ferrer's  propaganda 
made  the  greatest  progress ;  and  the  Auditor  has  had  occasion  to 
assure  himself,  by  examination  of  the  hundreds  of  prosecutions 

instituted  on  account  of  the  events  of 

This  monstrous  argument    July,  that  in  several  of  these  places  the 

from  a  mere  coincidence  of    names  of  the  chiefs  and  principal  insti- 

names  is  dealt  with  on  p.  246.     gators  of  the  Seditious  acts  correspond 

with  the  names  of  those  who  appear  as 
teachers  placed  by  Ferrer  in  certain  Schools,  or  with  the 
names  of  the  chiefs  of  one  or  another  anarchist  centre  dependent 
on   the  prisoner — facts   which  demonstrate  in  a  very  eloquent 


"THAT    IS   TO   SAY.   DEATH"     321 

way  the   leadership   {Jefatura)  of  Ferrer   in   the   revolution    of 
July. 

It  having  been  proved,  by  all  that  is  here  set  forth,  that  the 
facts  before  the  Court  deserve  to  be  characterized  as  military 
rebellion,  and  that  the  prisoner  intervened  in  them,  playing  the 
part  of  CHIEF,  it  becomes  clear  that  he  has  incurred  the  penalty 
set  forth  in  paragraph  i  of  section  238  of  the  Code  of  Military 
Justice,  that  is  to  say,  death. 

[Here  follows  an  endorsement,  with  one  slight  modification, 
of  the  formal  verbiage  by  which  the  sentence  is  accompanied.] 

For  the  reasons  explained,  the  Auditor  considers  that  the 
sentence  submitted  to  him  is  in  strict  accordance  with  the  Law, 
and  with  the  effect  of  the  proceedings,  and  that  it  is  one  of  those 
which,  by  Section  28  of  our  Code,  paragraph  10,  must  be  made 
executory  by  the  judicial  Authority,  whatever  be  the  penalty 
inflicted ;  whence  it  ensues  that  your  Excellency  should  be 
pleased  to  confer  on  it  that  character,  by  granting  it  your  superior 
approval. 

[Another  purely  formal  paragraph.] 

Your  Excellency,  however,  will  decide. 

ExcMo.  Sr.  Ramon  Pastor. 

Barcelona,  October  lo,  1909. 


MILITARY  PROCEDURE 

The  Military  Code  of  Justice  defines  and  provides  for  two 
classes  of  procedure :  The  Ordinary  (ordinario)  (Sections 
340-630)  and  the  Most  Summary  {sumarisimo)  (Sections'649-662). 
Sections  of  the  Military  Code  of  Justice  comprising  the 
Guarantees  accorded  to  prisoners  in  ordinary  trials. 

SUMARIO. 

In  order  that  proceedings  may  be  directed  against  any  person, 
some  charges  against  him  must  appear  (Sec.  421). 

The  prisoner  shall  give  evidence  without  being  sworn  (sec.  458), 
and  each  time  he  does  so  his  former  depositions  shall  be  read  over 
to  him  if  he  demands  it  (sec.  459) ;  the  objects  connected  with  the 
crime  shall  be  shown  to  him,  in  order  that  he  may  recognize 
them  (sec.  461);  he  shall  have  power  to  make  declarations  as 
often  as  he  wishes  (sec.  465)  and  he  shall  attend  at  the  per- 
formance of  necessary  formalities,  even  when  he  is  incom- 
municated  (sec.  479).  He  shall  have  power  to  take  exception, 
in  writing  or  verbally,  to  the  functionaries  intervening  at  any 
stage  of  the  proceedings  (sees.  362  and  365). 

Witnesses  have  permission  to  dictate  and  to  read  their 
declarations,  in  the  same  manner  as  the  prisoner  (sees.  431  and 
455),  they  shall  sign  them  (sec.  434),  and  no  captious  or  leading 
questions  shall  be  put  to  them,  and  no  deceptions  or  promises 
shall  be  employed  (sec.  435). 

In  the  confrontations,  a  reading  shall  be  given  of  points  upon 
which  divergency  is  noticed  (sec.  467). 

Identifications  shall  be  carried  out  in  a  circle  composed  of 
not  less  than  six  individuals  of  similar  appearance  to  the  person 


RULES    OF   PROCEDURE  323 

to  be  identified  (sees.  422  and  424).  Domiciliary  searches  must 
be  made  in  the  presence  of  the  persons  concerned  or  of  a 
member  of  their  household,  or  of  two  witnesses  (sec.  511),  and 
the  same  provisions  shall  apply  to  searches  of  correspondence  or 
of  documents  (sec.  521). 

The  Sumario  completed,  it  is  subjected  to  examination  by  the 
Captain-General  and  his  Auditor  (sees.  532  and  533). 

Plenario. 

The  Plenario  is  public  (sec.  540).  The  prisoner  himself 
names  his  Defender  (sec.  543)  and  the  charges  formulated  by 
the  Prosecutor  are  read  to  both ;  the  prisoner  is  asked  whether 
he  wishes  to  enter  a  plea  of  incompetence  of  jurisdiction,  of  the 
case  having  already  been  tried,  of  prescription,  or  of  pardon ;  to 
demand  an  extension  of  the  Sumario,  a  ratification  of  witnesses, 
the  calling  of  new  witnesses  in  the  case  of  common  crimes,  or 
any  other  proceedings  which  he  thinks  he  has  a  right  to  claim 
(sec.  548). 

These  proofs  may  also  be  proposed  by  the  Defender,  who  is 
present  when  they  are  taken  (sees.  552  and  559). 

The  Captain-General,  after  a  report  from  the  Auditor,  declares 
the  Plenario  closed,  and  orders  any  defects  he  may  observe  in  it 
to  be  remedied  (sec.  560). 

After  approval  of  the  Plenario  and  settlement  of  the  accusation, 
the  papers  in  the  case  are  handed  to  the  Defender  (sec.  563). 

Vista  Pl^blica  (Public  Hearing). 

The  Ordinary  Council  of  War  is  composed  of  a  President 
(Colonel)  and  six  Judges  (Captains),  chosen  automatically ;  an 
Assessor  (legally  trained)  is  also  present  when  the  crime  is 
military,  and  when  the  penalty  to  which  it  is  subject  exceeds 
correctional  imprisonment  (sees.  41  and  58). 

The  pri.soner  is  notified  of  the  names  of  the  persons  who  are 
to  form  the  Council  of  War,  in  case  he  should  wish  to  challenge 
any  of  them  (sec.  568). 

The  hearing  is  public  (sec.  575),  and  the  prisoner  attends  it 
(sec.  571;;  it  opens  with  the  reading  of  the  records  (sees.  576  and 


324  APPENDIX 

579);  next  comes  the  examination  of  witnesses  (sec.  578)  and 
experts  (sec.  579)  by  the  Prosecutor,  the  Assessor,  Defenders, 
President,  and  Judges,  and  the  identification  of  objects  and 
documents  (sec.  580) ;  then  the  reading  of  the  speeches  for  the 
prosecution  and  for  the  defence,  which  may  be  confirmed  or 
modified  by  word  of  mouth  (sec.  581),  and  finally  the  prisoner  is 
entitled  to  speak,  and  to  state  whatever  he  considers  expedient 
(sec.  583). 

The  Council  having  met  in  a  secret  session,  the  Assessor  pro- 
duces his  pronouncement  in  writing  before  the  deliberation  begins 
(sec.  586) ;  the  Judges  have  the  right  to  state  personal  opinions 
(sec.  594),  and  in  the  sentence,  which  is  determined  by  an  absolute 
majority,  an  even  division  of  votes  is  reckoned  in  the  prisoner's 
favour  (sec.  588). 

Approbation  of  the  Judgment. 

The  judgment  of  the  Council  is  reviewed  by  the  Captain- 
General  and  his  Auditor,  and  if  one  of  them  does  not  think  it 
just,  the  case  is  submitted  to  a  further  hearing  (vista)  before  the 
Supreme  Council  of  the  Army  and  Navy  (sec.  597). 


INDEX 


Acratism,  37,  158 

Adventures  of  Nona,  The,  39-49 

Albert,  Charles,  83  ;  Ferrer's  letters 

to,  no 
Alcaiiiz,  153-5 
Alella  : 

Ferrer's  capture  at,  17 1-4 
School  at,  3-4 
Alfonso  XIII.,  King,  236  v. 
Almanack     Annttaire    de    la    Libre- 
Pensie  Internationale  quoted,  4,  230 
Almudaina,  La,  201 
Alsina,  Comas,  261,  263,  272 
Alsina,  Juan,  200,  261,  272 
Alted,  Trinidad,  1S4 
Alvarez,    19S,    216-lS,    263,    270-1, 

277,  295 
Anarchists  : 
Terrorists  distinguished   from,  37, 

100 
Working  classes   preponderatingly 
of  party  of,  36,  100,  120 
Ardiaca,  Juana,  1S4 
Ardid,  Lorenzo,  204,  266-7,  276 
Arlal,  76 
Asiiio,  L',  65 

Atroio  de  Espafta,  El,  cited,  29  «. 
A/.orin,    Sr.    Crespo,    Civ.    Gov.    of 
Barcelona,     175;    cited,    150    //.  ; 
decree  of,  quoted,  153 


B ,  Mmc.,  24,  251  ;  evidence  of, 

cited,  76 


B ,  Riego,  24,  240 

Barcelona : 

Anti-Clerical      demonstration      at 

(1906),  61 
Bomb-plague  in,  lOO 
Committee  of  Social  Defence,  see 

that  heading. 
Escuela  Moderna,  see  that  heading. 
Religious  houses  in,  lOi  ff. ;  armed 

students  of,  131  and  n. 
Situation  and  environs  of,  97-9 
Strike,  general  {1909),  125-30 
Barcelona  riots  (1909) : 
Accounts  of,  conflicting,  136  ff. 
Anti-clericalist    violence    in,    130, 
132,   134,  13S;  burning  of  con- 
vents, etc.,  132 
Beginning  of,  132 
Carlist  instigation  of,  theory  as  to, 

131 

Ferrer's  instigation  of,  no  evidence 

for,  118,  125-6,  135,  199; 
growth  of  legend  as  to  his 
connection  with,  162  flf.  ;  his 
concealment  after,  sec  Ferrer- 
Concealment  ;  bis  trial  in  con- 
nection with,  see  Ferrer— Trial 
of  (1909). 
Incitement    to,    in    El    Progrcso, 

135 
Preliminary  disorder,  122-3 

Siege,  slate  of— proclaimed,    133  ; 
discontinued,  180 

Strike  developing  into,  1 25  ff. 
BatUori,  Mariano,  79,  152,  189 
Belloc,  Hilaire,  quoted,  26  «.',  61, 

90  and  «.,  181  n?,  195  and  nr 


326 


INDEX 


Bermejo,  Don  Angel  Fernandez,  206, 

213,  264 
Bernadas,  Mariano,  172-4 
Boletin  of  the  Escuela  Moderna  : 

Character  of,  52 

Largardelle  quoted  from,  59  n. 

"Renovation  of  the  School  "quoted 
from,  84-8 

Revival  of  (1908),  83 
Bonafulla,  Leopold,  cited,  122 
Bonet,  Baldomero,  198,  261 
Brissa,    Sr.,     quoted,     132 ;      cited, 

137  11." 


Calle  Mayor  outrage : 

Ferrer's   trial  in  connection  with, 
65-6  and  n. ,  73-80 

Morral's  perpetration  of,  61-2,  69 
Callis,  Verdaguer,  197,  260 
Calvet,      Francisco,     216-17,     220, 

271-2 
Casas,  Domingo,  Alcalde  of  Premia, 

198,  216-19,  262-3,  270,  277,  290, 

295 
Casasola,  152 
Catalonia  : 

Condition  of,  4 

Martial  law  in  (1909),  75 

Melilla     war,     attitude     towards, 
1 20- 1 

Political  parties  in,  100 

Religious  houses  in,  106  «. 
Cazalla,  Sr.,  quoted,  31 
Colldefons,     Francisco     de     Paula, 

evidence  of,  164  and  n,,  168,  211- 

14,  215  «.-,  268,  295,  314 
Committee  of  Social  Defence,  27  «., 

165,  218 
Compendium    of  Universal   History, 

49-50 
Concha,  Francisca,  153 
Coppola,  Sr.  Cesare,  25,  26  and  n}, 

2.%n? 
Correspondencia  quoted,  136 
Cortes,  Sr.  Garcia,  cited,  163  n}. 


D 


Daily    Telegraph,    The,    quoted    on 

Morral    affair,    69-71  ;    cited,    77 

and  n, 
"  Data  for  History,"  164 
de     Buen,    Dr.    Odon,    301,     308 ; 

Ferrer's  letter  to,  quoted,  229-30, 

281,  282 
de  Santiago  y  Manescau,  Don  Luis, 

129 
del  Marmol,  Fernando  Tarrida,  108- 

9  ;  Ferrer's  letter  to,  III 
Delaunay,  Mme.  Berthe,  quoted,  92 
Dinale,  O.,  Ferrer's  letter  to,  quoted, 

230 
Diocesan  Junta,  165 
Domenech,  Francisco,    evidence   of, 

208-10,  215,  217,  265,  267-9,  290, 

295  ;  disappearance  of,  218 
Dublin  Feviezu  quoted,  26  «.^,  61  «.*, 

90  and  n.,  181  «.*,  195  and  n? 


Ecole  Renovee,  L\  83,  1 10 
Encyclopcedia     of     Higher    Popular 

Education,  89-90 
Epoca  quoted,  162,  167  j  cited,  185 
Escuela  Moderna : 

Account  books  of,  question  as  to, 
77  and  n. 

Boletin,  see  that  heading. 

Directress  of,  34,  36 

Essays  of  pupils  at,  selections  from, 

54-8 
Ferrer's  lasting  zeal  for,  238-9 
Influence  of,  estimated,  245-8 
Methods  of,  53 

Morral's  connection  with,  66-8 
Numbers  taught  in,   total  of,   105 

and  71. 
Opening  of,  28,  59-60 
Principles  of,  32-3 
Publications  of,    38   ff,  ;   Azorin's 

view  of,  17s 
Tone  of,  50-1 


INDEX 


327 


Espana  Nueva  quoted,  20-3,  38,  277 
Espinosa,  see  Alvarez. 


Ferrer,  Capt.,  see  Ferrer  Guardia — 

Trial  05(1909) — Defender, 
Ferrer,  Mme.,  8-15,  17,  76-7 
Ferrer,  Jose,  visit  to,  93-6  ;  deporta- 
tion of,  152  ff.  ;  imprisonment  and 
release  of,  156-7  ;  attempts  to  give 
evidence    in    Ferrer's    trial,    189  ; 
bequest  to,  240 ;  estimate  of,  95  ; 
mentioned,  I16-17,  151 
Ferrer,  Layeta,  11 1 
Ferrer,  Miguel  Salillas  y,  27 
Ferrer,  Paz,  quoted,  16 
Ferrer,  Mme.  Trinidad,  quoted,  lo- 

14 ;  cited,  20  n. 
Ferrer  Guardia,  Francisco  : 
Arrest  of  (1909),  172-4 ;  rewards  in 

connection  with,  188 
Barcelona  riots,  see  that  heading. 
Career  of — early  years,  3-5  ;  mar- 
riage, 5  ;  removal  to  Paris,  5-6, 
300  ;  life  there,  7,  10-12,  18,  301  ; 
relations    with    Mile.    Meunier, 
19-27,   304-5  ;    founds   Escuela 
Moderna,    28,    59-60,    305    ft".  ; 
surrenders    to    police,    75 ;    im- 
prisonment   at     Madrid,     63-5, 
308  ;  trial,  65-6  atid  «.,  73-80  ; 
founds  Ligue  Internationale,  82- 
3  ;  projects  Encyclopadia  of  .  .  . 
Education, %^-^;  in  London,  29, 
108-10  ;  returns  to  Spain,  in  ; 
movements     during      Barcelona 
riots,  143  ff.,  313  ff.  ;  disappear- 
ance of,  149  ;  affair  of  the  signed 
document,    1 50-1  ;    attempts   to 
obey  judicial  summons,  169-73 ; 
capture,       174  ;     imprisonment, 
175-8;    trial,    see   tinder   Ferrer 
sub-heading    Trial     of     (1909)  ; 
removal  to  Montjuich,  236  ;  his 
will,  240  ;  his  execution,  241 


Ferrer  Guardia,  Francisco — cont. 
Characteristics  of : 

Courage,  241,  252-3 

Educational  zeal,  88,   113,  236- 
40,  247 

Kindliness  and  geniality,  251 

Proselytizing     proclivities,     20, 
32,  249,  251 

Rationalism,  113 

Self-devotion,  248 

Simplicity  and  frugality  of  life, 
92  ff. 

Sincerity,  88,  250 
Concealment  of,    after    Barcelona 

outbreak,  75,  148,  151  ;  official 

secrecy  as  to,  168,  220 
Disguise   of,    question   as   to,    173 

and  n.,  215  n} 
Estimate  of,  252 
Execution  of,  i,  241  ;  widespread 

indignation  at,  i,  244 
Family   of,    lo-il  ;    his   relations 

with  them,   11 -17;  his  bequests 

to  thern,  240 
Financial  affairs  of,  90-1  and  71. 
Grave  of,  241 
Imprisonments  of — at  Madrid,  63- 

5,  308  ;  at  Barcelona,  175-8  ;  at 

Montjuich,  236,  238 
Morral's  relations  with,  66-8,  73- 

4 ;     Morral's    letter    regarding, 

79 

Nakens'  relations  with,  72-4 

Parentage  and  birth  of,  3 
Political  opinions  of : 

Anti-clericalism,  64-5 

Anti-militarism,  32,  37 

Anti-patriotism,  32 

Change  in,   18-19,  37-8.  227  ff., 

249.  304 
Kducation,  on,  30,  32,  83  ff. 
Radicalism   and    jirolelarianism, 

64,89 
Revolutionism,  33 
Trial  of,  (1907)  regarding  Morral's 
outrage,   65-6    and    //.,  73-80; 
result  of,  81-2 


828 


INDEX 


Ferrer  Guardia,  Francisco — cotit. 
Trial  of,  (1909) : 

Assessor's  dictamen  —  cited,  223 

and  n}  ;  translated,  286-97 
Atmosphere  of,  3 
Auditor-General  : 

Dictamen  (report)  of — quoted, 
5-6,    26,    169,   228,   230-2, 
246;   cited,  34,   35,  62  «., 
89,  137  «.i,  245;  length  of, 
235  and  n}  ;  translation  of, 
300-21 
Function  of,  35  «. 
Charge  preferred,  2 
Course  of,  190  fF. 
Defender  : 

Restrictions  on,  \Z\,\%'^and7i. 
Selection  of,  181,  186  mid  n. 
Speech  of,  192,  195,  200,  207, 
218  ;  Ferrer's  estimate  of, 
238 ;  Assessor's  reply  to, 
291-6 ;  omission,  of,  from 
official  report   of  the   trial, 

183 
otherwise  mentioned,  187,  190, 
240 
Evidence  : 

Analysis  of,  194,  260-77 
Anonymity,    question    as    to, 

195  afid  nn.-6,  290,  291 
Documentary,  222  if.,  277-81, 

288-9 
Hearsay  and  opinion,  195  ff., 

260  ff. 
Relevant  accusations,  211  ff. 
Statements  which    prove   no- 
thing, 204  ff. 
Haste    in    conduct    of,    184-6, 

192  «.,  232,  235,  243 
Indictments  at,  183;  translations 

of,  259  ff. 
Irregularities  in,  181-2,  187,  243 
Military  law,  decision  for,  166, 

179-80 
Official     Report     of,     257-321  ; 
speech  for  the  defence  omitted 
from,  183 


Ferrer  Guardia,  Francisco — coni. 
Trial  of — continued. 

Physical  examination,  184-6 
Procedure  at,  181-3,  189 
Prosecutor's  speech — cited,  62  «., 
91,    193 ;    analyzed,    196   ff. ; 
translated,  257-85 
Publication    of    Sumario    docu- 
ments  pending,    187  and  w., 
224,  234 
Sentence,    235    and    nr ;     real 
ground    of,    245 ;    translation 
of,  298-9 
Witnesses  for  the   defence    not 

admitted,  157,  160,  189,  292 
Witnesses  for  the  prosecution  : 
"Conclusive     proof"      from, 

disappearance  of,  185-6 
Confrontations,   l8l    a7td  n.-, 

205,  217,  276-7,  316-17 
Examination  of,  irregularities 

as  to,  181-2 
Imprisonment  of,  and  release 

after  evidence,  178,  218 
Inaccuracy    in    reporting    of, 
146  n. 
Villa  of,  see  Mas  Germinal. 
Will  of,  240 
Ferrer ;  PJTomme  ei  son  CEuvre  cited, 

173  n.,  229  «.',  230  n. 
Figaro  quoted,  8-10 
Fontcuberta,  Maria,  152,  156-7,  240 
France,  Analole,  83 
Francisco  Ferrer — Sa  Vie — Son  Qiuvre 

cited,  223  n.- 
Freedo/n  quoted,  II4-18 


Galceran  Ferrer,  Capt.  Francisco, 
see  Ferrer — Trial  of,  (1909)— De- 
fender. 

Garcia,  see  Ferrer — Trial  of,  (1909) — 
Assessor. 

Gerundio,  Fray,  cited,  106  and  n. 

Gii  Bias  quoted,  16 

Gille,  Paul,  83 


INDEX 


329 


H 


Haeckel,  Ernest,  83 

Heaford,  William,  S3,  108  ;  Ferrer's 
letter  to,  quoted,  82, 1 1 1, 169,1 74  iif., 
183  atid  n. ;  Ferrer's  second  letter 
to,  quoted,  185  ;  cited,  232  n.  ; 
appointed  Ferrer's  executor,  240 

Heraldo  de  Madrid  quoted,  29 

Huesca,  154,  177 


Iglcsias,   Emiliano,  63  «.-,  66,   136, 

265;     trial    of,     165,     181,     184; 

evidence  of,  at  Ferrer's  trial  (1909), 

197  and  fi.,  208,  261-2 
Imparcial,  El,  quoted,  27,  167,  172, 

188 
InquisiUurs  d'£spagne,Les,c\\.Qd,<)<)  n. 
Intertiacional,  La,  cited,  125 
Isabella  II.,  Queen,  4 


Jacquinet,    Mme.    Clemence,    34-6, 

49-51.  306 
y^«r«a/ quoted ,  147 
Judicio  Ordinario,  180  ff.,  189,  205  «.^, 

322-4 


K 


Kropotkin,  Prince,  quoted,  37 
Kropotkin,  Mile.  Sasha,  quoted,  109, 
H3  ti. 


La  Cicrva,  Sr.,  124,  129 
Lagardclie,  Hubert,  quoted,  59  «, 
Laisant,  Charles,  83  ;  Ferrer's  letter 
to,  quoted,  1 1 1 


Lara,  Modesto,  198,  262 

Law  of  Jurisdictions,  179 

Lerroux,  Alejandro,  79,  135,  302-4 

Ligue  Internationale  pour  I'Education 
rationnelle  de  I'Enfance,  82-3 

Litran,  Cristobal,  145-6,  I49)  189 ; 
deportation  of,  153  ;  Ferrer's  exe- 
cutor, 240  ;  quoted,  167-8 

Llarch  (Juan  Puig  Ventura),  198- 
200,  215-18,  262,  269,  289-90, 
295,  316 

Llibre,  see  Casas. 

Lliviana  y  Fernandez,  Don  Vicente, 
proclamation  of,  quoted,  166 ; 
Ferrer's  estimate  of,  183 

London,  Ferrer  in,  92,  108-10 

Lorenzo,  Ansclmo,  39  ;  quoted — on 
opening  of  the  Escuela  Moderna, 
59-60  ;  on  the  deportations,  152  ff. 


M 


Madrid : 

Ferrer's    imprisonment    at,    63-5, 
30S 

Morral's  outrage  in,  see  Calle  Mayor 
outrage. 

Rioting  in  {1909),  123 
Maeterlinck,  Maurice,  82  //. 
Magallon,  Garcia,  198,  262 
Malato,  Charles,  92  ;  Ferrer's  letters 

to,  cited,   148,  216,  223  ;   quoted, 

184 
Manana,  La,  quoted,  235  «.* 
Marina,  Gen.,  119,  123 
AfarCyr  des  Prctres,  Un,  cited,  4  «,, 

5  «.',  no  ;/.,  148 
Martyrdom   of   Ferrer,    The,    cited, 

S  «•'.  99  "• 
Mas  Germinal  : 

Description  of,  65,  92  ff. 

Life  at,  1 15-16 

Police  ransacking  of,  95,  149,  160-1 
Masnou,    147,    16S,    196  ;     evidence 

relating   t<i,    201-2,    20S,    214   ff., 

260,  267  ff.,  296,  315 


330 


INDEX 


Maura,  Sr.,   i6,  76,  124  ;  letter  of, 
in  La  Manana  quoted,  235   w.' ; 
fall  of,  I,  243-4 
Melilla  affair,  119-20 
Meseguer,  Alfredo,  145,  189 
Meunier,   Mile.    Ernestine,   Ferrer's 
relations  with,    19-27,    304 ;    will 
of,  25-6,  28  «,' 
Meyer,     Mile.     Henriette,     Ferrer's 

letter  to,  quoted,  229 
Millet,  Salvador,  201,  273 
Montjuich  : 

Ferrer  removed  to,  236  ;  his  con- 
finement in,  238 
Tortures  in,  98  w.,  280 
Moral  Education  League,  112  and  71. 
Moreno,  Miguel,  208,  209,  266,  314  ; 

Ferrer's  letter  to,  quoted,  143-5 
Moret,  Sr.,  179,  243-4;  letter  of,  in 

La  Manana  quoted,  236  w.,  244 
Morral,    Mateo,    relations    of,   with 
Ferrer,  66-8,  73-4 ;  relations  with 
Nakens,   69-71  ;    letter   from,   re- 
garding Ferrer,    79 ;    outrage   of, 
61-2,  69  ;  death  of,  71 
Moya,  Jimenez,  196-7,  260 
Alundo,  El,  cited,  63  n." 
Mustares,  216-17,  263,  270-1 


N 


Nakens,  21,  22 ;  Ferrer's  relations 
with,  72-4 ;  Morral's  relations 
with,  69-71  ;  sentence  on,  and 
release  of,  71 

Naquet,  Alfred,  Ferrer's  letter  to, 
quoted,  114 

Negrini,  see  Raso. 

Nevinson,  Henry,  cited,  140 


Ossorio,   Don  Angel,   1 24 ;    quoted, 
126,  129,  131  ;  cited,  163 


O 


Ordinary  Process  .  .  .  againsi  Fran- 
cisco Ferrer  cited,  183 ;  quoted, 
258-321 


Pages,  Pedro,  201,  275 

Pastor,  Ramon,  see  Ferrer — Trial  of, 

(1909) — Auditor-Gen, 
Pierre  (journalist),  198  and  n. 
Pius  X.,  Pope,  236  n. 
Police  : 

Bad  faith  of,  242  and  n. 
Deportations     as    conducted    by, 

154  n. 
Ferrer  shadowed  by,  114,  I17,  125, 

144,  206,  264 
Mas  Germinal  ransacked   by,  95, 
149,  160-1 
Pons,  Puig,  201,  272,  274 
Ponte,  Lieut. -Col.  Leoncio,  evidence 
of,  at  1907  trial,  78,  196  ;  evidence 
at  1909  trial,  196,  260 
Portet,  Lorenzo,  240 
Premia  de  Mar,  147,  168,  196  ;  evi- 
dence of  villagers  of,  199  ff.,  214  ff., 
260  ff.,  270,  296,  315 
Press  : 

Overtures  to,  (1907)  for  incrimina- 
tion of  Ferrer,  78 
Publication  in,  of  Sumario  docu- 
ments (1909),  187  and  n.,  224, 
234 
Prim,  Gen.,  4 

Proceso  Ferrer,  El,  cited,  1 81  «.' 
Progreso,   El,   cited,    135  ;    Ferrer's 

visits  to  office  of,  208-9 
Puigdemon,  Esteban,  202,  273 


R 


Radical  de  Valencia,  El,  cited,  151 
Rafales,  see  Ferrer — Trial  of,  (1909) 

— Prosecutor 
Raso  Negrini,  Don  Valerio,  184,  186, 

189,  190,  223-4,  226 


INDEX 


331 


Revista  Penitettciaria,  cited,  63  «.' 

Revolucion  de  yulio  cittA,  122,  137  n." 

Robles,  M.,  153-4 

Roca,  see  Morral. 

Rugieres,  Sr.  Renato,  1 14-18 


Salilias,  Don  Rafael,  cited,  63-5 
Santa  Coloma  insurrection,  5,  300 
Santa    Maria   de    Pomes,   Pontifical 

Count  of,  quoted,  165 
Semana  Tragica,  La,  quoted,  119 
Sergi,  Giuseppe,  83 
Shaw,  Rafael,  quoted,  102-4,  140-1 
Siglo  Futuro,  El,  quoted,  164,  211 
Simarro,    Dr.,  cited,    162,    181    «.', 

205  «.• 
Sola,  200 
Solidaridad    Obrera,    124,     163   «.', 

196-8,  209,  260-3,  279,  309,  319 
Spain : 

Anarchists,  see  that  heading. 
Education  in  : 
Condition  of,  4,  28-31 
Escuela  Moderna,  see  that  head- 
ing. 
Reforms  in,  attempted,  31-2 
Schools,  inadequacy    of,   29-30 
and  nn. 
Imprisonment  in,  nature  of,  178 
Law  proceedings  in,  examples  of, 

66  «.,  78 
Military  tribunals  in,  proceaure  of, 

180  ff.,  189,  205  «.',  322-4 
Religious  houses  : 
Burning  of,  132 
Convents  : 

Industrial      competition     by, 

101-3 
Number  of,  106  ti. 
Number  of,  106  n. 
Religious  orders  : 

Economic     situation     due     to, 

101-4 
Education  in  relation  to,  31 


Spain — continued. 

Religious  Orders — continued. 
Unpopularity    and    distrust    of, 
loi  ff.,  131,  134,  139 
Socialist  party  in,  36,  120 
Spain  from   Within   cited,    29   n.  ; 
quoted,  102-4 


Teruel,  155,  158 

Times,  The,  cited,  121  ;  quoted,  191 

Torniento  en  los  Conventos,  El,  cited, 

106 
Torturing  of  prisoners,  98  n. 

U 

Ugarte,  Don  Javier,  164-9,  263 
Universe,  El,  quoted,  165, 179  ;  cited, 
177 

Urales,  Federico,  778 


Van  Eysinga,  H.  Roorda,  83 
Vanguardia,  La,  cited,  234 
Ventura,  Juan    Puig    (Llarch),    198- 
200,    215-18,    262,    269,    289-90, 

29s.  316 
Victiinarios,  Lj)S,  cited,  99  n. 
Vie  Ouvriere,  La,  quoted,  152  ft'. 
Villafranca,  Mme.,  161,  189 
Villafranca,  Sr.  (brother  of  Solcdad), 

«S2-4 

Villafranca,  Mme.  Soledad,  Morral's 
courtship  of,  67-9  ;  deportation  of, 
152  flf;  imprisonment  and  release 
of,  157  ;  Ferrer's  Iclcgram  to,  177  ; 
at  Tcrucl,  187  ;  attempts  to  give 
evidence  in  Ferrer's  trial,  189 ; 
Ferrer's  last  letter  to,  238-9  ;  his 
bequests  to,  240 ;  interview  with, 
quoted  in  Journal,  147-9  I  other- 
wise mentioned,  96,  108,  109,  1 17, 
1 50- 1 

Volncy's  Ruins,  20 


332 


INDEX 


w 

Ward,  G.  H.  B.,  quoted,  31 
WestininsUr  Gazette  cited,   109,    113 

n. 
Weyley,  Gen.,  280  ;  quoted,  104 


Zorilla,  Ruiz,  5,  7,  19,  300  ff. 
Zulueta,  Don  Pascual,  quoted,  162-3, 

166 
Zurdo,  Luis,  184 


THE  END 


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